


Mass Effect: Bionicle Revolution

by hunter139



Category: Bionicle - All Media Types, Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover, First Contact, First Meetings, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2020-12-24 17:07:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 51,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21102965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunter139/pseuds/hunter139
Summary: The survivors of the Kingdom found a new home amongst the stars. But they will soon learn the galaxy is more perilous than they imagined. Takes place in the Kingdom Alternate Universe.





	1. Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so this is an idea that I've had for a while, specifically, a crossover between Bionicle and Mass Effect where the Citadel Council ends up making contact with the Kingdom a long time after Prime Takanuva made his brief trip there.
> 
> So yes, this story takes place in the Kingdom Alternate Universe, and for the record, it is not part of my previous story multiverse. I'm not sure if I'll finish it in it's entirety, given how it's mostly a rough idea at this point, but I'll do my best. With that said, let's dive right in, shall we?

The Asari Survey ship dropped out of FTL in this unclaimed system. With the efficiency of having done this thousands of times, the crew scanned the ship and the region to make sure that nothing had gone wrong.

"All systems are accounted for, no signs of any other ships detected." The sensor operator reported.

"Excellent work." The Captain complimented. "Set a course for planet BC673. I'll inform the Matriarch."

As her crew followed her instructions, Captain Tarissa left the bridge and headed towards the crew quarters, suppressing a grimace at the thought. Officially, the Matriarch assigned here was in charge of the whole mission, but unofficially, it was clear that she had assigned herself here to run from some family troubles back home.

Sure enough, as soon as Tarissa was granted access to her quarters, she found the Matriarch gazing forlornly at a framed photograph on her table. The photo showed the Matriarch in question with another Asari Matriarch, who was holding an infant asari in her hands.

Tarissa cleared her throat, but the other asari didn't react. So the Captain decided to speak up.

"Matriarch Aethyta-"

"I heard you the first time, Captain." Aethyta replied as she stood up, before turning to look at the other asari. "I take it we've arrived in the system."

"Yes, ma'am. We're beginning our sweep now."

"And you couldn't just comm to tell me that?" Aethyta raised an eye ridge.

"Your omni-tool was off." The Captain replied simply, causing the Matriarch to glance at her arm.

"So it is." Aethyta replied, and for the first time, Tarissa noticed the wine bottle and glass that was also sitting on the table, and suppressed yet another grimace.

The mission they were on was quite simple: this unnamed system, a mere two jumps away from the nearest relay, had been found to have a potential Garden world in the habitable zone. Their task was simply to get a closer view of the planet to determine how habitable it was and whether it was suitable for future colonization.

It was a task that hardly required the presence of a Matriarch, but the Captain was now stuck with her and was forced to bite her tongue to keep the words she wanted to say from slipping out.

"I just thought to keep you informed." The Captain said instead.

"Well then, don't let me keep you." Aethyta replied. "As you were, Captain."

Tarissa gave a stiff nod before turning on her heel to leave. But just before she crossed the threshold of the door, her omni-tool pinged with an incoming communication from the bridge.

"Captain, your presence is required immediately!" Her second in command reported with unusual tension, something both Tarissa and Aethyta took note of.

"What is it?"

"It's BC673, ma'am." Her second replied. "We're detecting signs of civilization on the surface."

Tarissa and Aethyta rushed back to the bridge in their newly found haste, and arrived in time to see the crew bustling with activity as scanners were checked and rechecked to determine their accuracy.

The readings all checked out. There were signs of civilization on that planet.

"Give me details, people." Tarissa said brusquely. "Who are we dealing with? Pirates? Slavers?"

"Neither, Captain." The sensor operator replied. "We're detecting the presence of a massive city on the surface, far too large for any criminal factions to have built."

"What about communications?" Aethyta cut in, drawing a number of eyes to her. "Are we detecting any transmissions of any kind?"

"Nothing ma'am." The comms operator said after Tarissa gave a nod. "We're detecting no transmissions coming from the surface."

"Alright people, we're looking at a potential first contact here." Aethyta said, looking over the crew before turning to Tarissa. "Captain, if you don't mind, I'll lead this mission myself."

"Of course, Matriarch." Tarissa straightened her posture, especially as Aethyta sounded far more like the Matriarch that she was compared to a few minutes ago. "I'll select our best people for this mission, though we weren't expecting a first contact situation."

"No one ever does." Aethyta sighed. "But we have these protocols for a reason."

"Ma'am." One crew member objected. "Are we sure that we should really be making first contact at all? Especially considering the Rachni? Whatever society this is is clearly not a spacefaring one-"

"At first glance." Tarissa interjected. "But the last survey of this system showed no sign of complex life on that planet. They had to have come from somewhere."

"We're going down there." Aethyta said, clearly signalling an end of the discussion.

"Understood." Tarissa nodded. "I'll assemble the necessary specialists and notify the Council, assuming that's your request?" Aethyta nodded in approval.

"We'll take a shuttle down to the surface." She said, sighing. "Hopefully this will be a smooth first contact."

...

Nixie watched the stars. She was an astrologer, it was her role after all. Ever since they had abandoned the failing island of Mata Nui and journeyed to the stars. Traversing the void of space hadn't been an easy journey, of course.

It had taken centuries of travel, and if it hadn't been for the Toa, they would most likely have run out of air or supplies long before they could ever get to their destination. They had evacuated all the species of the Kingdom, while saving as many Rahi as they possibly could, with quite a few put in stasis to prolong their supplies.

Still, it was an absolute relief to come across a new and untouched world, and as soon as they could, colonization began. Construction of a grand city began, in almost a mirror image of the Kingdom that had united all the species of the universe, turned foes into allies and friends, and created a new home for them all.

Between the harmonious work of so many disparate species, the New Kingdom of the Great Spirit was completed very quickly. Expansion continued to grow, of course, as did exploration of their new home.

The species of the former Matoran Universe were no longer bound by the limited space of an island. They were free to stake out new claims on this planet, create new homes for themselves and segregate once more.

Yet with the exception of a very small few, none of them did. The last 10,000 years had proven that they all had a better chance of peace and survival united, than dividing themselves into separate factions.

And that's what remained: the Kingdom's ruling council consisted of Turagas Takanuva and Dume, Roodaka, Toa Helryx, the Shadowed One, Skakdi warlord Nektann and a Nynrah Ghost, while the Dark Hunters served as law enforcement and the Toa now helped to create new landmasses and homes for everyone.

And Nixie, she watched the stars, having a whole new data set to keep track of on a new world. So that led to where she was now, looking up through the Great Telescope that they had managed to bring with them when leaving the Matoran Universe.

She marked the positions of the stars and planets, carving them into her new star map, when she noticed something: a strange object could be seen above, drifting in orbit. She focused on the object, trying to get a better sense of what it was.

It was moving under its own power, that much she could be certain of. And as she kept watching, something detached from the object, noticeably heading in their direction. It wasn't a meteor, it's deceleration too controlled to be such, which could only mean one thing.

"Botar!"

Nixie had made her hut far from the Kingdom, on the water of one of the bays that bordered the Kingdom, on the outskirts of the city itself. Yet when she called, Botar arrived immediately, his teleportation power bringing the Order of Mata Nui agent right to her.

"What is it?" The massive being asked, looking at the Ga-Matoran in curiosity.

"I need to speak to the Council immediately." The Astrologer replied. "We may have company."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and that's the end of this first chapter. I'll admit, I don't think it was my best work, but I needed to get some of the boring stuff out of the way sooner rather than later. Hopefully, I'll get to more action sooner rather than later.
> 
> With that said, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and reviews are always welcome.


	2. First Contact

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And welcome to this latest chapter of the story. Today, we'll be getting into the First Contact between the people of the Kingdom, and the Citadel Council, represented by Matriarch Aethyta. But without further ado, let's dive right in.

"And you are certain of this?" Turaga Dume asked, leaning forward.

"Very much so." Botar replied, shaking his head. "Kopaka has confirmed Nixie's finding: the object is some sort of vessel, and alien lifeforms are inside it."

This caused a brief murmur to ripple among the Council before Takanuva tapped his staff against the ground. "We knew that the existence of life among the stars was a possibility." The Turaga of Light said. "Though it is still surprising to have it confirmed like this."

"The better question we should ask is what their intentions are." Helryx interjected. "We should hope for peace, obviously, but we haven't made it this far without preparing for the worst."

"Are we honestly suggesting that they simply came down to start a fight?" The Nynrah Ghost asked.

"I'm inclined to agree." Nektann responded. "If they came to conquer or enslave, they would likely have brought a larger force than this."

"We must prepare for every possibility." Roodaka pointed out. "Especially if these new arrivals turn out to be hostile."

"Indeed." Takanuva replied. "But until such time as that happens, we will assume that they are peaceful explorers unless proven otherwise. The last thing we want to do is provoke a fight with a star faring race."

"So it is decided." Dume said. "We shall make first contact with these new arrivals."

...

The asari shuttle landed quite some distance away from the city, in a forest that most certainly hadn't been here when the last survey ship had passed through. Part of the reason for this was to avoid spooking the locals, but another reason was to go over the data that they had scanned while on the flight down.

The city itself was a curious architectural puzzle, with vastly different building styles next to each other. The center of the city was a massive technologically advanced building that stretched into the sky, and there were similarly designed buildings elsewhere.

Yet they often sat side by side with rather primitive looking dwellings made out of rock or plants. On the flight over, they had even spotted a few dwellings made of seaweed floating on the water.

Yet it was what the images captured of the inhabitants that gave the asari pause: every single being they could scan was a synthetic. There wasn't a single wholly biological sapient anywhere in the city.

Naturally, this created quite a bit of debate between those on the ground and in space. A number of asari immediately opted to leave and designate the planet as a no-fly zone. More hardline asari wanted to go further and contact the Turians, bombing this city into rubble.

Of course, there were still those who wished to make first contact with these new aliens, but nevertheless advised caution. Matriarch Aethyta listened to all the points of view being thrown out, then interrupted before a full blown argument can erupt.

"I understand we're all a little on edge from this latest discovery, but we're not going to act like krogan." She said, glaring in the direction of those who had advocating bombing the city. "We are not some trigger happy cops or jumped up conquerors, so stop acting like that."

Sufficiently chastened, Aethyta then directed the contact team to begin making their way through the forest, carefully taking scans of everything they came across. To the surprise of the asari, they found quite a few biomechanical creatures roaming through the trees, from small bugs and birds, to even larger creatures like large insects and lizards.

Fortunately, none of the creatures shown had proven to be hostile on sight in any way, and the science officers were having a field day with the data they were collecting. One officer scanned a large bird like creature nesting up in a tree, then looked over the results on her omni-tool.

"Fascinating." The officer shook her head. "These creatures may all look mechanical, but I'm detecting distinct organic tissue and systems among them."

"Did someone forcibly convert them into cyborgs?" One Commando asked, looking repulsed and horrified at the thought, but the scientist shook her head.

"Not at all. The organic components are artificial too. These creatures are wholly made of a substance that I can't identify, but there are definitely organic components among them."

"Then who designed them?" Aethyta asked, looking around at a large insect like creature that flew by. "And why would they need to create an entirely artificial ecosystem like that?"

"It's unclear, ma'am." The scientist shook her head again. "Perhaps we can ask them once we've made first contact."

"Assuming we can understand them." Another asari muttered under her breath.

Their journey through the forest continued slowly, not helped by the thick undergrowth of the forest they had to tread through. But they all paused when one of the commandos with them raised a hand.

"What is it?"

"I'm detecting a massive signature heading right for us." She replied, pulling out her rifle as she spoke. The other Commandos did the same, while the few who had training, Aethyta included, activated their biotics.

"Get to cover!" The Matriarch said, as the rumbling sound of something large approached.

The Commandos moved with professionalism as the unknown contact made its way towards them. They were expecting some sort of vehicle, or some other unknown transport. But what emerged hadn't been quite what they expected.

Bursting through the undergrowth came a large mechanical scorpion, roaring in anger. As the asari watched, a ball of magma simply materialized on the end of its tail, before solidifying into hardened rock.

The creature's tail acted as a catapult, sending the rock hurtling towards the asari. Biotic barriers were the only reason that the asari underneath weren't turned to bloody giblets by the throw.

"Open fire!"

The commandos lit up the creature with mass accelerator fire, but all it seemed to do was piss it off. Another ball of magma and rock was formed as the creature attacked again, this time managing to break the biotic sphere that protected the science team.

"Warp it!" Aethyta shouted before following her own order.

Several bolts of biotic energy struck the creature. It had a better effect, burning and damaging the scorpion's armor as it cried out in agony. But a wounded animal was all the more dangerous, and the creature lashed out with more rocks at a rapid pace before charging forward.

Trees fell and asari went flying as the scorpion thrashed in anger. One swipe of its tail knocked Aethyta through the air before impacting painfully against a tree, her barriers breaking from the force.

Groggily, she could only watch as the scorpion approached her when something strange happened: The creature was suddenly enveloped in a thick coating of ice, freezing it in mid-stride. The asari blinked in confusion, turning to the rest of the first contact team.

Everyone else was still busy rising to their feet, and the others were looking on in confusion, so it clearly wasn't an omni-tool application that did this. Hell, Aethyta didn't know any cryo weapons capable of doing something like this, so where did it come from?

The answer came seconds later as three alien figures emerged from the undergrowth. Two of them were rather tall, standing at seven feet in height, with similar body proportions. The only major difference between the two were the armor colors, weapons they were carrying and the strange masks on their faces.

One was primarily in shades of blue, holding a pair of small blades, one in each hand. The second one was primarily white and silver in color, holding a double bladed weapon in one hand and a circular shield in the other. Most noticeably, there was a telescopic lens over this figure's right eye.

But it was the third figure that was the most imposing, towering over the other two figures. There were a pair of large blades mounted on each of its arms, and it carried an unusual axe weapon in addition to that. It had a noticeable mouth with prominent teeth, and while the glowing red eyes made it hard to tell what it was thinking, the creature appeared to be judging them.

Instinctively, the commandos had their weapons trained on the new arrivals, causing them to tense and raise their own in turn. Aethyta quickly rose to her feet and shouted.

"Stand down! Don't provoke them!"

"Matriarch-"

"Just do it." Aethyta repeated. "I don't think these ones are a threat."

Reluctantly, the commandos did as the Matriarch ordered, before things could get out of hand. The tall biomechanical being growled slightly, but ultimately said nothing as the natives withdrew their own weapons.

"Now, we just need to figure out how to communicate." Aethyta said, turning to the science officer. "You said that these creatures were partially organic. Do you think a Meld would work?"

"I... really can't say." The scientist admitted. "I don't have enough data to determine whether or not that would work."

"Is that really wise, Matriarch?" The leader of the Commandos whispered. "We still don't know what these creatures are capable of. Goddess, one of those animals just attacked us for no reason!"

"And these people saved us." Aethyta responded, gesturing in the direction of the new arrivals, who were engaged in a quiet conversation of their own. "Whatever these people are, it's a mistake to treat them as one hostile bloc."

"Matriarch, you must remember what happened with the Geth." The Commando protested. "We need to destroy them!"

"And why do you need to do that?"

All the Asari froze, before slowly turning to the one blue armored being standing there, with a slightly glowing mask as it, no, she, spoke perfect Thessian. Her blades were out in her hands again, causing the other two beings to tense as well.

"How do you know our language?" The science officer asked.

"I believe I'll be asking the questions here." The female machine replied. "Why exactly do you wish to destroy us when we haven't done anything to you?"

"Forgive my comrade, she's not thinking rationally." Aethyta replied quickly, hoping to defuse the tension. "After that attack," She gestured to the frozen robot scorpion. "we're a little on edge."

"I can understand that." The arrival said after a moment, lowering her blades slightly. The other two did the same, with a slight glance at the blue armored one.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves." Aethyta began, hoping to make a better impression. "I am Matriarch Aethyta of the asari."

"I am Dalu, Toa of Water. These are my compatriots, Toa Kopaka," She gestured to the white armored individual before pointing to the taller one, "and Botar." The arrival replied, looking up to the sky for a moment. "You came from the stars."

"We did." Aethyta nodded. "And I presume you did as well, seeing as our last scans of this planet showed no signs of civilization."

Dalu was about to reply when Botar said something that none of the asari could understand, with Kopaka nodding in agreement. Dalu spoke as well, before turning back to the asari.

"My apologies, but my comrades have suggested we cut this short. There are a lot more Rahi in this forest."

"Then by all means." Aethyta didn't know what a 'Rahi' was, but she didn't want to do anything to insult her new hosts. "Lead the way."

The trio of biomechanical beings started walking away, with Aethyta beckoning for the other asari to follow. As she did, the Matriarch took note of just what these beings were and what they could do.

They had seen it with the 'animals' that were wandering this forest, but it was more pronounced with these individuals. Every step, every movement of the arms, legs, neck, was all accompanied by distinctly mechanical sounds, but the movements themselves were far more imprecise, more... organic. The contrast was disconcerting.

Then there were the capabilities. Despite not carrying any noticeable weapons beyond blades, one of them had somehow flash frozen that large scorpion monster in a second, something an omni-tool cryo app couldn't do. Dalu could perfectly speak their language mere moments after meeting the asari, yet the others could not.

"Matriarch, I'm still not sure this is wise." The commando leader protested, whispering in the hopes of not being overheard. "For all we know, these people are leading us into a trap."

"I am quite certain they could have already done that if they wanted to." Aethyta countered, but the commando was persistent.

"We still don't know how they translated our language so quickly." The commando said. "For all we know, they remotely hacked our omni-tools and jammed any comms to the ship."

"I didn't." The commando and Aethyta flinched when they realized Dalu had heard them. The Toa of Water turned her head to look at them. "My mask lets me translate and understand any spoken or written language."

"Your... mask lets you do that?" The science officer asked, confusion and awe in her voice. "How is that even possible?"

"Questions for later." Aethyta cut in, trying to get the conversation back on track. "Where exactly are you taking us?"

"To the Coliseum." Dalu replied. "The Capital building of the Kingdom."

"The Kingdom?" Aethyta shook her head. "Your government is a monarchy?"

"Not at all." Dalu replied, sounding like she was trying to be diplomatic, yet was getting tired of having to. Aethyta could certainly relate. "The Kingdom is headed by a ruling council, after the events that-" Dalu was cut off by Botar, who said something they couldn't understand. "Right, that's a story for later."

Aethyta wanted to press the subject, but she kept silent regardless and let these individuals keep guiding them. Despite her rebukes to the commando, part of her was wondering whether or not this was some kind of trap, but she couldn't figure what reason there would be for it.

Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, Aethyta nevertheless remained on edge as they continued their travels. No one else spoke up, for fear that their guides would hear them and risk getting them even more offended than they already were.

Eventually, they reached the outskirts of the forest, where they finally had a good view of the city. They had gotten sensor readings on the way down, but in person, it was admittedly a rather impressive, albeit confusing sight. The architecture was a collection of different styles and designs, yet somehow gave this place its own unique flare.

And dominating the skyline was a building that towered above all the rest, a vaguely cone-shaped spire with six smaller pillars at the top, one of which towered above all the others. If Aethyta had to guess, that was the Coliseum.

The procession halted at a pair of gates, where two other biomechanical beings stood guard. Botar and Kopaka briefly got into a conversation with the two, before finishing up while Dalu turned to the asari.

"Right, so it looks like we're getting an express ride to the Coliseum." The Toa of Water said.

"Your leaders are sending us transport?" Aethyta asked, looking at the walls curiously. She noted a variety of sentries and strange weapon emplacements mounted on them, unlike any she had seen before. There were several manned turrets of unknown weapons, multiple automated devices, and even several walking machines patrolling the grounds.

"Not exactly." Dalu said, drawing Aethyta's attention back to her, before noticing Botar closing in on them. "This might be a bit disorienting."

Before Aethyta could ask what Dalu was talking about, she started to shimmer, as did all the asari alongside Dalu and Botar. A second later, the environment had changed, the sights and sounds of the Kingdom had vanished, with them now in a large antechamber.

Aethyta felt nauseous, with the other asari feeling similarly. One commando even threw up her lunch, causing Dalu to raise an eye ridge with a degree of confusion, yet some sympathy in her masked visage.

"Sorry about that. First time teleporting can be rather difficult."

"Tele-teleporting?!" The science officer's shocked expression mirrored the rest of the asari's, Aethyta included.

Teleportation was regarded as science fiction, completely impossible for modern technology. Sure, the mass relays allowed instant transportation between two points in space, but required receivers on both ends to work.

Some biotic techniques functioned similarly to the relays, allowing instant transmission of one's self between walls and such, but it could only function in a small area. But these beings, who seemed strangely primitive in some areas, had the ability to teleport entire groups of people over large distances.

Personal teleportation on such a scale was thought to be impossible, yet here they were. It was clear to Aethyta that whoever or whatever these people were, they were a lot more dangerous than they appeared at first glance.

Before any other questions could be asked, several other figures walked in to the room from a concealed door. One was yet another Toa of Water, but this one had more noticeable scars on her armor, plus she carried herself with a weight that made it clear she was ancient.

Another was a figure that was quite clearly female. Covered in black and grey armor, she was noticeably taller than most of the others save Botar, and her cold blue eyes looked at the asari, apparently sizing them up.

Another figure in blue armor walked into the room, and Aethyta couldn't help but flinch slightly. He was tall, covered in noticeable spines on his shoulders and down his spine. His face had a rather creepy grin on it, with distinct teeth that was noticeably absent in the others.

Another individual walked in, also fairly taller than most of the others. He had black, grey and yellow armor, had a noticeable tail and was carrying a staff in one hand. Like the others, he seemed to be sizing the asari up, and there was something in his gaze that made Aethyta want to take a step back.

The final three were noticeably less intimidating, and noticeably shorter than the others. In fact, the asari actually towered over the three of them. One was clad in armor that was burnt orange and gold, and moved rather simply for his stature.

The other two had much more noticeable signs of aging, moving rather slowly and their staffs seemed to double as walking sticks. They both also had noticeable robes over their backs. One was armored with dark red and orange, while the other's colors were primarily white and gold.

"Allow me to introduce the Council of the Kingdom." Dalu said, drawing the eyes of the asari to them. "Welcome to the Kingdom of the Great Spirit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm just going to end it there. Kind of abrupt, I know, but I wasn't sure where else to end it. Now, I'll be honest, I'm probably going to gloss over these initial talks and just skip straight to the inevitable meeting on the Citadel.
> 
> I don't really trust myself to write politics and such all that well, so I'm gonna play to my strengths a bit more. I'll be honest, it'll probably be some time before we get a good action scene again, but hopefully I'll think of something to write soon.


	3. Council Meetings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and now it's time for the latest chapter. This one should be more focused on the Citadel's first official contact with the Kingdom and their initial meeting with the Citadel Council. I'd say more, but for now, let's just dive right in, shall we?

Matriarch Aethyta felt anxious, a trait her crew noticeably shared. When the Matriarch had agreed to this mission, the last thing she had expected was to be part of a First Contact mission, let alone with a species like this.

Well, calling them a single species would likely be inaccurate. The Kingdom's leaders had given a (presumably abridged) retelling of their history, and apparently there were many species that lived in some sort of hollowed out construct that they believed to be the entire universe.

They were apparently created by unknown creators they called the Great Beings to serve a being known as Mata Nui, their 'Great Spirit'. It was certainly surprising to hear such religious imagery and reverence from synthetics, but considering they served as their creators, Aethyta supposed it wasn't unexpected.

The Matriarch did wonder whether or not this Mata Nui existed in reality, or if he was just some sort of mythical figure or icon that didn't exist. But when she brought that up as a possibility, the Council looked willing to kill her on the spot, causing the Matriarch to keep her mouth shut regarding that line of thought.

Admittedly, what they said next did make it seem like Mata Nui was a real being: one species known as the Makuta who had served as enforcers for the Great Spirit, became jealous of all the praise and worship Mata Nui was getting.

In their envy, the leader managed to somehow send Mata Nui into a deep slumber, causing a cataclysm across their entire universe. The asari soon realized just how old these beings were when they explained that he slept for a thousand years, with Dalu making it clear they lived through that entire period of time and could remember even more before that.

Regardless, his health had apparently deteriorated during that time frame, to the point that he was actually dying. A group of brave Toa attempted to save his life, but they failed in their endeavor, causing Mata Nui to die, and the universe he watched over to start falling apart.

However, it seemed that many were well aware of this possibility and had planned contingencies. There was an island outside their universe in an Endless ocean, and there was an impressive effort to evacuate as many people as they could.

Representatives from every species barring one called the Zyglak and the Makuta had endured and survived, though there had been tremendous losses. They had spent the next ten thousand years making a civilization on that island and keeping the landmass stable after Mata Nui's death, but it wasn't able to last.

So, they had created their own ark ships and evacuated again, drifting through space for years before they crash landed on this planet. Aethyta had to admit, it was quite an amazing, if rather unbelievable tale, especially if even half of what they were saying was true.

What was also unbelievable was another smaller event that had occurred: During the meeting, the Nynrah Ghost had requested a translator from the asari and left the meeting when he got it. Not half an hour later had the Matoran returned, with multiple translators of his own design.

Dalu had been relieved, as it meant she no longer had to function as a living one herself. It also certainly made it easier on the asari, but the fact that they had taken technology they had never seen before and reverse-engineered it within half an hour was rather alarming.

"What exactly are your intentions now?" Aethyta asked, after the history of their society had been shared.

"Shouldn't we be asking you that?" One of the leaders, who had been introduced as Roodaka countered. "You came to us, after all."

"And furthermore, you were apparently discussing wiping us out." Toa Helryx added, causing Aethyta to shoot her commando a glare, causing the other asari to wilt under her gaze. "Is this how you normally greet new species, or is it just us?"

Aethyta tensed at the new energy in the room. The being called the Shadowed One and the spined creature called Nektann even seemed to have gained noticeably glowing eyes. Whether it was for something tangible or merely intimidation was unclear, though it certainly was effective in regards to the latter.

"My apologies for my guard's... overzealousness." The Matriarch replied, shooting another glare in the Commando's direction. "We have had... problematic issues with Artificial Intelligences."

"Perhaps we should take a step back." The smaller being known as Turaga Takanuva said, and as he spoke, Aethyta could swear that she felt the tension leaving her as everyone seemed to calm down. She relaxed when everyone else did as well. "We have told you our history. Perhaps you could tell us some of yours?"

"Very well, then."

And so Aethyta related events regarding the discovery of the Citadel and the formation of the Council. She gave an abridged recounting of important events like the Rachni war, the Krogan Rebellions, and reluctantly, the Geth Uprising.

Barring a couple of minor interjections, the Kingdom's council remained silent and listened to the events that had occurred in the last several thousand years. And when Aethyta finally finished, there was a brief moment of silence before Turaga Dume spoke up.

"Your society has seen much hardship, it seems." The former leader of Metru Nui said. "I can certainly understand your caution regarding these 'Geth', but you must understand that we are not them."

Aethyta was about to speak again when her omni-tool began beeping. Excusing herself, the Matriarch checked to find a message from Captain Tarissa. Like she had been instructed, the Captain had sent a message to the Citadel Council regarding the potential first contact.

Their response had not exactly been the most calm one, especially after detecting Aethyta and the asari's transponders abruptly disappearing from the city's edge to the capital building. Upon hearing what had happened, the Council had immediately sent several turian warships to the system.

Aethyta immediately contacted the ships to keep anything lamentable from happening, and by the time that conversation was done, she had relayed the current events to the Kingdom's own leadership.

"Perhaps a direct meeting between leaders is in order." Takanuva suggested.

...

Once Aethyta and her asari had left the chamber to organize a meeting with the Citadel Council, it left the leaders of the Kingdom free to talk among themselves. The resulting opinions were... mixed, to say the least.

"This is certainly beyond anything we could have anticipated." Dume noted, turning to the gathering. "An entire galactic civilization was not something we could have expected from such a contact."

"Assuming they're telling the truth." The Shadowed One countered. "I've told enough lies to know when someone else is doing the same. They're not telling us the whole truth."

"Are we so different?" Roodaka pointed out. "Still, I have to agree. The fact that their initial thought was to wipe us out just for what we are does not paint the most welcoming picture that these asari are implying."

"If that was truly their reaction, they wouldn't have tried to talk at all." Takanuva countered. "Don't take one individual's personal views as the standard for the whole society."

"Be that as it may, we have to be prepared for the worse." Nektann interjected. "These people could also just be buying time to strike against us."

"I agree." Helryx spoke up for the first time in the conversation. "But acting in haste is not going to help anyone." She looked towards the doors. "If you'll permit me, I'll be the main ambassador for this initial meeting. And I'll bring a few agents with me."

"Who did you have in mind?" Dume asked.

...

By the time Aethyta had finished relaying her messages through the ship to the Council, Tarissa had become increasingly on edge. The presence of several warships in the system didn't help, but it was what she had detected on the planet that was really alarming.

When the asari transponders had suddenly jumped from the outskirts of the city to the main building in an instant, Tarissa's first thought was that it was a glitch. But the diagnostics confirmed that it wasn't, and Aethyta's own transmission revealed the truth: they had been teleported.

Naturally, the asari captain's first response was to believe that was impossible, but then she ordered further scans of the planet and the city on it. From what could be seen, teleportation was merely the tip of the iceberg from these beings.

Impossible structures of ice or stone were created in mere seconds, weather patterns seemed to be manipulated to an impossibly precise degree, and who knows what else was going on in that city.

_By the Goddess, what have we stumbled on to? _Tarissa's musings were interrupted when she noticed the shuttle departing from the ground, heading back up to the survey ship above.

"Matriarch, we have your shuttle on approach." The Captain immediately connected to the comms. "We're prepared to receive your arrival."

"Good." Aethyta noticeably paused. "Because I'm not actually in the shuttle."

"What?"

"I ordered the pilot to take off without us." Aethyta explained quickly, clearly wanting to avoid an incident. "It's going to be more expedient that way."

"I'm not sure I understand." Tarissa actually had a guess, but she didn't know whether she wanted to believe it. "How will you get back aboard?" There was a shimmer of light as several figures suddenly appeared on the bridge, Aethyta among them.

"Like that, apparently." The asari Matriarch groaned.

Everyone was certainly shocked to see a first hand display of teleportation, but Tarissa was quick to recover and took in the four alien arrivals. The first thing she noticed was that these aliens were really tall, the shortest two of the quartet clocking in at over seven feet.

The latter two were noticeably taller, and had to duck their heads in order to even fit on the bridge. And all four of them were armed. The grey armored one had an unusual sword in his hands, the blue armored one was holding a primitive looking flail.

As for the other two, one was holding a gigantic axe over his shoulder, which looked like it was heavier than an Elcor. The other was holding a wicked double bladed sword, one of which was easily longer than Tarissa was tall.

Naturally, the guards reacted to the unexpected arrival of these large and heavily armed mechanical beings by unholstering and aiming their weapons, but the Matriarch was quick to step in before any more lamentable misunderstandings happened.

"Everyone just relax." Aethyta said quickly, before gesturing to the new arrivals. "Allow me to introduce the representatives of the Kingdom: Toa Helryx, Toa Krakua, Axonn and Brutaka."

"Thank you for having us aboard your ship." The one called Krakua said politely. Tarissa bit back a retort about not inviting them and instead responded diplomatically.

"The honor's all mine." That was when something occurred to her. "Though I must admit, I'm surprised that you already have working translators so quickly."

"Don't remind me." Aethyta muttered, before speaking up. "Anyway, presuming nothing has changed, we'll be taking this ship directly to the Citadel."

"Very well then." Helryx replied simply.

...

They spent the passage of time learning all they could about the species of this galaxy, and some of their habits and traits. That most of the known species were completely organic was a little surprising, but hardly viewpoint shattering.

Contrary to what some of these asari had thought, things like completely organic life and reproduction wasn't an unknown concept to the inhabitants of the Kingdom, with the lifeforms in the oceans around Mata Nui example enough to them.

The technology was also something they were interested in. They had learned how this 'Element Zero' enabled Faster Than Light travel around the galaxy, and that the species before them had created a network of mass relays to facilitate travel over large distances in the galaxy.

So the Order agents certainly weren't idle during their journey, learning about things like biotics and the technologies developed throughout the history of the Citadel Council. Helryx couldn't deny that it was impressive for such advancement over two millennia.

Admittedly, not much of what they had could match the creations of the Great Beings. There were some things that impressed, like the extranet, a communication network spanning the entirety of Citadel space (which was where all this history came from), but their overall understanding of existence felt fundamentally flawed in many ways.

The Toa of Water was already planning on keeping a number of their greatest treasures a secret, at least for a time. The fact that some of the Kingdom had mental powers, including mind control, would undoubtedly terrify the people who's most experience with that was asari melding, which was comparatively limited to the power of Psionics.

And the less said about the Ignika, the Vahi and their supply of Energized Protodermis, the better. The three miracles were kept hidden deep under the Kingdom in separate Protosteel vaults, and were constantly guarded by the Light manipulating Umbra and Time manipulating Voporak.

If this Citadel Council learned about a Mask that could manipulate Life itself, or a Mask that was fundamentally tied to the flow of Time, and that the Kingdom had access to both, their reactions would likely be... extreme.

Energized Protodermis... well, Helryx had absolutely no intention of letting them anywhere near that. It probably wouldn't be a secret that could be kept forever. Then again, many secrets rarely were. Nevertheless, Helryx was not looking forward to that day.

...

It took a couple days, but the survey ship alongside the escort of two turian frigates eventually made the required jumps to reach the Serpent Nebula. Once that happened, the new arrivals were invited to the bridge in order to get their first real view of the Citadel.

"It's very nice." Brutaka said simply, with Axonn nodding in agreement, while Helryx simply shrugged.

Krakua could tell that the asari were hoping for more of a reaction at seeing this majestic sight. Apparently, showing off the Citadel like this was supposed to stun and impress new arrivals to just what Citadel space could accomplish when working together, if that's what the thoughts he was reading were any indication.

The station was certainly an impressive marvel, and the noticeable fleet around it, with the backdrop of the purple nebula was admittedly quite the spectacle. But while others from the Kingdom would almost certainly be impressed, the Order of Mata Nui members knew it was just that: a spectacle, nothing more.

More interesting about the station was its history: apparently it had been created by a previous species called the Protheans, who had up and vanished nearly 50,000 years ago. Naturally, Helryx found that suspicious.

Very few things could simply vanish without a trace, certainly not without someone or something cleaning up evidence rather thoroughly. The First Toa knew that from experience, having ordered similar (albeit smaller scale) events like the scattering of Av-Matoran across the universe, or wiping out everyone who knew the location of Artakha.

Someone had to have made them disappear. And the fact that the Citadel and Mass Relays, supposedly the greatest creations of the Protheans, were left behind was certainly enough to send warning flags through Helryx's mind.

Eventually, the ship was granted permission to land and docked at the station, allowing the crew to get off for some shore leave, as well as letting the ambassadors of the Kingdom to see the interior of the station itself.

Apparently, they weren't going to see the Council right away. Instead an escort of Turian C-Sec officers and a Salarian groundskeeper would be taking them on a brief tour of the Presidium grounds beforehand.

"And why are we doing this?" Axonn asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, which caused the Groundskeeper's eyes to nervously shoot to the axe he held in his hand.

"It's custom for new arrivals to the Citadel." The Salarian quickly explained. "Especially for brand new species such as yourself."

Axonn's mask could find no deception in his words and he subtly conveyed this to Helryx with a nod.

"Then by all means." She said politely. "Lead on."

It wasn't hard to guess that at least part of the reason was that the Order agents had refused to part with their weapons like C-Sec had asked. The potential standoff had been avoided when Aethyta pointed out that all of their weapons were melee and thus could do little harm when compared to the mass accelerators C-Sec had.

Of course, they didn't exactly need their weapons anyway, but by Helryx's order, the Order agents had no intention of letting these people know just what they could do, at least not yet.

And it wasn't like the Citadel could've taken Axonn and Brutaka's weapons even if they had handed them over. Axonn's axe easily weighed more than several officers put together, and Brutaka's blades were imbued with the ability to electrocute anyone who wasn't him.

So, the tour of the Presidium began, and the first thing Krakua noticed above everything else was how there were quite a few different species represented here. It was very much like the Kingdom in a lot of ways.

Besides asari, Salarians and turians, who made up the bulk of these crowds, there were also the rotund Volus that were shorter than even Matoran, the jellyfish-like Hanar who communicated primarily with bioluminescence, the large but gentle elcor, and the four eyed Batarians.

There were also species like Krogan, and the rare Drell and Quarians, who could be seen. Naturally, the Order agents drew quite a lot of attention, and whispered conversations occurred when the people in question thought they were out of hearing range.

Naturally, the Toa of Sonics could hear them all clearly. Most of them were simply from the curious wondering just who or what these people were, but there were a number of less flattering and more hateful conversations, not unlike the asari that had called for their destruction.

Krakua's mask revealed even less flattering thoughts, as a number of Batarians had noticeable thoughts of enslaving them and one Quarian was also thinking of genocide against their Kingdom.

The Toa of Sonics could certainly understand prejudice; fear and the unknown made people distrustful and spiteful, but it was still disheartening to see it here, especially on a station that was supposed to be a symbol of cooperation and understanding.

The Kingdom had admittedly had similar problems at its start: even with the destruction of their universe, the prejudice and discrimination didn't simply disappear overnight. The Skakdi had initially been fairly belligerent and the Dark Hunters had initially found it incredibly difficult to feel any sympathy for the Matoran and other species.

Yet now, there was no question that the Skakdi would work in harmony with everyone else, and even the Dark Hunters would lay down their lives to protect the Matoran. The death of Mata Nui had been the worst disaster anyone of them could have imagined, yet what had emerged in the aftermath was nothing short of beautiful.

So to see similar prejudice on a station like this, where their entire history was built on mutual cooperation and alliances, well... the Toa of Sonics couldn't deny that it was fairly disappointing.

Eventually, the tour led to a number of statues, which complimented the history of the station. Krakua admittedly became more focused on the Relay Monument and missed some of the explanation, but not because of the speculation regarding its purpose and why the Protheans created it.

Mainly, he was curious about the rather distinct humming being emitted from the statue. It was almost undetectable to normal audio receptors, especially organic ears, but Krakua knew Sound quite well, and it might as well have been a warning alarm to him.

He could still hear the humming even as the tour moved away from the Relay monument and approached the Krogan monument. Krakua split his attention between the Relay monument and the discussion that had broken out between Axonn, Brutaka and the Presidium Groundskeeper over the events leading up to the Genophage.

"It certainly feels rather cruel." Axonn said, not accusingly, but the Salarian was quick to reply.

"You have to understand, we had no choice." The Salarian was saying. "The Krogan were overrunning the galaxy, the genophage was our only chance of survival."

"Perhaps, but those who remain stuck in the past are doomed to repeat it." Brutaka said. "The transgressions of the past cannot be undone, but nor should they define one's character for the rest of time."

There was a sharp intake of breath from Helryx, stalling the conversation from going any further. Her hand was on a nearby guard rail, and she was staring off into the distance of the Presidium.

"Uh, miss..." The guide paused when the Toa of Water turned her gaze to him. "Is-is everything alright?"

"Of course." The Toa of Water replied simply. "Though if you don't mind, I'd like to keep the tour moving." She shot a brief look at Axonn and Brutaka, who kept their peace.

"If you're absolutely certain..." The Salarian trailed off as Helryx looked back at him.

"Show us everything."

And so the tour continued for a bit, with the groundskeeper and their escorts showing more of the sights, including the embassies for the Volus and Elcor, all the while the history was continued to be relayed and crowds of people were continuing to gather and take notice of their delegation.

Meanwhile, Helryx was finding an excuse to touch as many parts of the station as she could find, briefly inspecting bulkheads and rails, staring at them intently before abruptly turning away.

When they saw one of the Keepers (Krakua had noted the disturbing fact that this species had no thoughts of their own), who the Groundskeeper explained the history of, Helryx had managed to sneak an opportunity to touch one of their terminals, before one of the C-Sec guards quickly chimed in to note that it was against Citadel law to interfere with the Keepers and their work.

"Ma'am, did you hear me?" The turian said when Helryx didn't instantly pull away. He was about to grab her arm when she finally did.

"My mistake." The Toa of Water said, pulling away.

And with that brief stop, the tour continued as if nothing happened. Outwardly, Helryx seemed perfectly fine. There was no sign of discomfort or hostility from the oldest Toa, and she reacted as if nothing had happened. But that clearly wasn't the case at all.

Her subordinates knew the truth. Something had rattled the Order leader. It wasn't obvious, especially to anyone unaware of what she was doing, but Helryx was using her Mask of Psychometry to read this station's history.

Whatever she had seen was obviously something that shook the hardened leader of the Order of Mata Nui. And there wasn't much that could do that. Fortunately, the tour had finally drawn to a close as the Council was ready to see them.

They were escorted up to the Council Chambers, the sweeping plants and antechambers complimented the steps leading up to the audience room. It was certainly a nice display of nature, especially in this space station.

At the far end was a podium and the three Councilors on the dais, an asari, a salarian and a turian respectively. Krakua had their names and thoughts read immediately. There was a degree of fear regarding this meeting, but also varying levels of curiosity from the three aliens.

The turian was worried about whether they would be a threat, and was considering possible military strikes against the Kingdom if necessary. He wasn't actively hostile like some others, merely concerned with the security of their people if things went bad.

The Salarian was more scientifically curious. The word of Botar's teleportation had apparently made waves in the scientific community already, and the Salarians wished to know what else they could do.

The asari was the most open to a new species, but there was an underlying fear of change, that the Kingdom could disrupt the status quo and change the balance of power in the galaxy.

"Greetings." The Asari Councilor said as soon they came to a halt in front of the Council. "On behalf of all our species, we wish to welcome you to the Citadel."

"Thank you for your... kind introduction." Helryx said diplomatically. "But we are here for a reason, are we not?"

So the diplomatic talks began.

...

The conversation had been more or less what Helryx had expected. The Citadel species wished to know exactly what the intentions of the Kingdom was, especially since according to the turian councilor, they had settled on a world that had previously been claimed by the Council for future colonization.

"You didn't exactly leave a sign that said 'this planet is already claimed'." Helryx retorted. "Furthermore, it's an entire world. Surely, there is enough room."

"We can discuss this further at a later date." Councilor Tevos raised a placating hand in the turian's direction. "For the moment, there are other things we'd like to discuss."

"Indeed." The Salarian's arm lit up in an orange color, using a device the Toa had learned was called an omni-tool. "Your history is quite fascinating, as is your technology." A video recording of the delegation teleporting up to the asari ship appeared in his hand. "Translocation of matter on that scale is something previously thought impossible."

"I'm more curious as to what the readings we got from the surface." Tevos murmured, before turning back to the Kingdom representatives. "Toa Helryx. You identified yourself as a Toa of Water. Could you explain what that means?"

"Simply put, it means what it says." Helryx replied, deciding that a little explanation couldn't hurt. "I can create and control the element of water. There are a number of Toa like me, and even more Toa with vastly different elements."

"Fascinating." The Salarian said, but was interrupted by a turian snort.

"I must admit, I find that hard to believe." The turian's sharp gaze faltered when struck by the glare of Axonn and Brutaka, but held his ground. "It sounds more like something out of a fairytale than any truth."

"We have undeniable evidence that they are capable of teleportation, Councilor." Tevos glared at the Turian Councilor. "And reports from the surface that a large creature was frozen in seconds."

"Perhaps a demonstration is in order, Councilors?" Helryx interjected, turning to the turian. "I would be more than happy to give proof, if you so desire." The three Councilors glanced at each other, and the turian crossed his arms.

"Very well, then."

Helryx gave a brief wave of her hand, and it started to rain. Inside the Council chambers, drenching the Councilors and C-Sec guards as a massive downpour just appeared out of nowhere.

The downpour became a sudden wave that stretched up to the high ceiling of the room... and just stayed there, unmoving and unfalling. The wave abruptly turned into pillars of water, which then turned into different shapes, mirroring several of the statues Helryx had seen on their tour, including the relay and Krogan monuments.

Just as suddenly as it started, the water disappeared, the massive wave and everything else absorbed into a small sphere of water that fit comfortably in the palm of Toa Helryx's hand.

"You'll find many Toa skilled at controlling the elements." Helryx said, clenching her fist around the ball which vanished into her hand. There was a brief moment of stunned silence from the Council and their guards regarding the spectacle they had seen.

"Incredible." The Salarian councilor spoke up, his mind racing. "Weather control and manipulation beyond anything previously thought possible. There is nowhere near the amount of water in this room to do what you did, so it must have been generated somehow."

"And what of you, Toa Krakua?" The Turian councilor asked, his eye ridges narrowed. "What pray tell is your element?"

"I am a Toa of Sonics." Krakua replied. "And if you wish for further demonstration..." The Councilors nodded in fascination and just a little hint of fear. "Very well, then."

Krakua raised his sword and the guards and Councilors braced themselves, expecting some kind of loud noise to emerge. But it was silent, utterly silent as the Citadel species looked around in confusion, not seeing any changes in the room like they had with Helryx.

"What are we supposed to see?" Tevos asked. Or rather, she tried to ask, only to find that no sound escaped her mouth. There was a brief instinct of panic at the sensation before it struck her just how silent the room was.

She turned to her fellow Councilors and found that they were in the same predicament; trying to speak and yet no words came out. Helryx looked at Krakua, who lowered his sword and allowed the sound to return.

"Quite a useful ability." The Salarian Councilor said excitedly. "Stealth and reconnaissance would certainly be more effective with that power."

"That is only scratching the surface of what he can do." Helryx crossed her arms.

"The usefulness of these powers can be discussed at another time." The Turian Councilor interjected before turning his gaze back to the Order agents. "The question remains: what exactly are your intentions in the galaxy?"

"Well, our intentions were simply to be left alone in peace before your society made contact." Helryx started, crossing her arms. "And that desire still hasn't changed. We have no desire for conflict with your society or wish to destroy your civilization. But make no mistake," Three spears of water suddenly appeared in front of the Councilors. "we will not hesitate to fight if we need to. In the meantime, I need to discuss these events further with our own Council."

"You've certainly given us a lot to consider." Tevos said diplomatically once the water constructs disappeared. "As another gesture of good faith, we would be glad to transport you back to your Kingdom."

"Thank you, but that will not be necessary." Helryx replied, tilting her head slightly in Brutaka's direction.

Space warped as a portal suddenly appeared in the middle of the Council chambers. As the Councilors and guards stared at this new development, simultaneously amazed and horrified at the ramifications, Helryx spoke up once again.

"We'll be in touch."

And with those words, the four Order of Mata Nui members stepped through the portal, which promptly closed behind them. The Council was silent for a moment before Tevos broke the silence by speaking up herself.

"We need to maintain strong diplomatic ties with these people." The asari said. "The ramifications of what they can do..."

"A war against them will be a costly one." The Turian councilor admitted. "Especially if they have no need for warships or even much industry, when they can just create it themselves. And even one being who can transport personnel interstellar distances in an instant is something we don't exactly have a counter for."

"Recommend scientific study, as much as possible." The Salarian Councilor agreed. "These biosynthetics could be a great boon to Citadel Space."

"Let us hope they feel the same." Tevos murmured.

...

The dimensional gate returned them to the Coliseum, where Helryx was quick to summon their own Council for the resulting meeting. The rumors had spread amongst the Kingdom that aliens had in fact made contact with them, and that their leadership was in negotiations.

Turaga Takanuva and Dume were quick to address the populace and assure them that the situation was still ongoing and that it would be folly to jump to rash conclusions. Now, the leaders of the Kingdom were definitely interested to hear how the meeting had gone down.

"We've trusted the Order of Mata Nui for millennia." Takanuva said. "What is your assessment about this Citadel Council?"

"They certainly wish to avoid a conflict." Krakua said. "They do fear us,"

"As they should." The Shadowed One interjected before Krakua continued.

"But they will not act in haste, nor will they try to attack us without due cause."

"It should go without saying that we should expect spies and infiltrators from them." Axonn interjected. "Just because they will not act openly against us, doesn't mean they won't keep an eye on us."

"And it goes without saying that we will do the same." Roodaka said.

"The Council will be the least of our problems." Helryx spoke up for the first time. "Our biggest concern right now is the true creators of the Citadel."

"What do you mean?" Dume asked, a frown on his mask.

"The Citadel and the whole network of Mass Relays are a trap." All eyes were on the Toa of Water as she explained what she had seen. "They were created by species of giant starships called the Reapers in order to harvest all advanced like in the galaxy."

"You're certain of this?" Takanuva asked after a moment.

"Positive." Helryx said grimly. "They've done it countless times, to countless civilizations. This Citadel Council will be the latest in a long list of societies to fall."

"What can we do?" Dume asked, but Nektann interjected.

"What should we do?" The Skakdi countered. "It doesn't concern us. We have no actual ties with the Citadel."

"The Reapers won't care." Helryx replied. "Now that the Council knows about us, they will wipe us out just the same."

"It appears things have gotten more complicated than we would wish." Takanuva said gravely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of the chapter. I'll be honest, it was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be, and I'm still not sure I'm completely satisfied with it. Frankly, I'm terrible at the political side of stories, and kinda just wanted to get past that as soon as possible.
> 
> Anyway, now the story is really going to start heating up, especially considering what Helryx found out while on the tour. Trust me, there are going to be a lot of ramifications about that going forward.


	4. Reactions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright and so we begin the next chapter. For the record, there's going to be a bit of a timeskip here, from either a week to a month, I haven't decided yet. Furthermore, it's going to mostly be focusing on the reactions of the Mass Effect galaxy to the presence of the Kingdom. With that said, let's dive right in.

The appearance of a new species and society on the galactic stage was always a momentous and often nerve-wracking event for the people of the galaxy, often moreso for the new species themselves.

But the revelation that not only had a society of what was quickly being called "biosynthetics" been discovered on a previously surveyed planet, but that an entire ecosystem and multiple different species were part of that society, reactions were certainly across the board.

There were a not insignificant number of civilians who advocated for the Council to wipe these synthetics out, before the galaxy had another Geth Uprising on their hands. Many others were quick to point out that these beings weren't the Geth, and that they certainly weren't the same as other known AIs in the galaxy.

The division between camps only grew when leaked footage from both the asari survey ship and the Citadel Council chambers emerged on the Extranet. Actual teleportation and the ability to generate and manipulate water to an impossible degree certainly provided new details to talk about.

The ones advocating for genocide only grew louder, terrified of such power, while still others were fascinated by those abilities and advocated for a more diplomatic approach, reasoning that an open war would only go horribly, and getting the aid of such a society could be a great boon to Galactic Civilization.

Unknown to the populace, similar (and usually calmer) discussions were going on among the leaders of the galaxy at large. This new discovery easily had the potential to change the balance of galactic power, and no one wanted to screw that up.

...

"This is a major problem." One of the asari Matriarchs said, looking around at the other Matriarchs in this secret meeting of asari. "With the discovery of the Kingdom, our current standing in the galaxy could be in jeopardy."

"I'm certain this won't be that much of an issue." Another Matriarch said, a little too confident. "We've thought similar things about the younger races before, and we've always turned it around."

"Except this isn't a younger species." A third Matriarch glared at the previous speaker. "Our scans have confirmed what their representatives have said: they are far older than any of us. This 'Helryx' alone is well over 110,000 years old. They're not going to fall for the same schemes."

"And that's not accounting for what they can do." The first Matriarch spoke again. "Tevos has confirmed that what was seen in the Council Chambers actually happened. And that was just one of these 'Toa'. Goddess knows what the rest are capable of."

"Caution will be the key." A fourth Matriarch and one of the more senior members of their group said. "We must find out just what these biosynthetics are capable of. And if I were to hazard a guess, the Salarians are already working on that."

...

The Salarians were indeed working on understanding what the Kingdom was capable of, mostly using the scans taken by the asari during the First Contact, and the scans taken while Helryx and her delegation had gone to the Citadel.

Several STG bases were now dedicated to researching this phenomena, and one base was in the middle of discussing it with a high-clearance commander of the Salarian Special Tasks Group.

"This material is certainly fascinating." One STG scientist spoke up. "Protodermis: something that is used in everything in the Kingdom, even organic matter. Quite versatile as well, if these claims are any indication."

"What about us?" The STG commander asked, looking over the research himself. "Are we capable of replicating this substance ourselves?"

"Not as such." The head scientist admitted. "We cannot determine just what materials are used in its construction."

"What about these powers?" The commander said. "Have you determined just how they are capable of such things?"

"Not at all." The scientist admitted, his expression falling. "All we have are theories, most of which are speculative at best."

"Let's start with the more important one." The STG commander switched the holoscreens to the feed of the asari being teleported. "Teleportation. How is this possibly accomplished?"

"It's... unclear." One scientist replied. "Our best guess is that some individuals have the ability to break down particles and reassemble them in another location. How it was miniaturized to such a degree is also unclear. Perhaps the Great Beings that created them could answer this."

"That's not their only method of teleportation." Another scientist spoke up, switching to the feed from the Council Chambers as a portal appeared. "From what we can speculate, at least one individual in that party has the ability to create some form of interdimensional gates at will, to wherever they want to go."

The ramifications of that alone weren't lost on the STG. Such an ability could make the mass relays, even the very FTL drives used by all species completely obsolete. With such capability, they could travel to other galaxies, potentially even other universes.

The Commander mentally made a note to find out if the Kingdom had any evidence that the multiverse theory was real. That was another host of ramifications that wasn't lost on the Salarians, and the STG officer was eager to get them back on track.

"We'll table this discussion for now." He shook his head. "What about these elemental powers?"

"That's where it gets tricky..."

...

While the Salarians were speculating over what their technology was capable of, the Turian Hierarchy was discussing potential strategies if armed conflict ever broke out between the Citadel and the Kingdom.

Normally, against a single planet civilization, the strategy would be fairly simple: bombard the industrial centers from orbit until the enemy surrendered or keep bombarding until they were annihilated. In this case however, that strategy was complicated by a major factor.

The Primarch of Palaven watched the screen as the footage showed the asari and Kingdom delegation appearing on the bridge of the survey ship from thin air. The feed looped several times until the Primarch shut it off.

"And we are certain they had no knowledge beforehand?" He asked his fellow Primarchs and Generals.

"Matriarch Aethyta confirmed that they hadn't given any coordinates to the ship's orbital position, or the location of the bridge." The intelligence General reported. "Somehow, they were able to teleport more than a dozen individuals aboard despite that lack of information."

The military implications weren't lost on the turians. This 'Botar' had the ability to send boarding parties directly onto the bridge aboard any ships, completely bypassing GARDIAN defenses and even the marine defenders. With that potential, they could easily take over any ships, or simply teleport explosives to critical locations and cripple any vessels.

And that wasn't accounting for the teleportation range. If what happened on the Citadel was any indication, that range extended thousands of lightyears, if not greater. They could potentially teleport in this room, one of the most heavily defended locations in the entire galaxy, kill all the turian leaders, and no one would be able to stop them.

"A war against these people would be a costly one." The Primarch said. "Have scout ships in the system, but make it clear that they are not to do anything to provoke them."

The Turian generals nodded as the strategic meeting continued, albeit inconclusively. Truth be told, they were still in the dark about just what the people of the Kingdom could do. One thing was certain though, it was better to have these beings as their allies than to be their enemies.

...

Unknown to the galaxy, the Kingdom's Council were having their own discussions about what to do. The revelations that Helryx had returned with was certainly cause for alarm, and the Kingdom's leaders had been busy researching everything they could about this galactic society, and more importantly, their previous histories.

After Helryx had explained all the Reaper capabilities she had seen and Brutaka had 'acquired' some omni-tools that allowed them to connect to the extranet, their research into their history and the galaxy's archaeological past had begun and was still ongoing.

"Do you think they're aware of this?" Dume asked, looking through the history on this extranet. "These Reapers have been mentioned in various myths. Can we be certain that the leadership doesn't know of this?"

"I didn't get that impression when I read their minds." Krakua said, having been invited to the meeting to give his report. "If the galaxy's leadership is unaware of such an event, then it seems unlikely that the rest will know about it or take it seriously."

"A cunning trap." Nektann nodded in reluctant approval. "By the time they realize what's coming, it's already too late."

"Our priority should be to keep our citizens safe." Dume interjected, looking around the table. "We haven't come so far, survived the destruction of our universe, only to lose now."

"We can't stop our people from wishing to travel." Takanuva said, clearly speaking from experience. "With an entire galaxy to explore, I know many Matoran will wish to go and see these new sights for themselves."

"There is also a matter of trade." Roodaka pointed out. "We can clearly sustain a mutually beneficial partnership with the people in Citadel Space and beyond. They have products we don't have, and we have products that they certainly don't have."

"Perhaps we can work that to our advantage." Helryx spoke up, drawing all eyes to her. "It's unlikely that we can defeat all the Reapers by ourselves. We will need allies, and the Council races would be our best bet."

"And you believe this will help?" The Nynrah Ghost asked, arms crossed in thought. "It certainly could work. Element Zero is hardly gamebreaking, but it is an interesting substance. I'm certain we can find some uses for it."

"One of the key components of the Reaper trap is that everyone develops along the paths the Reapers leave behind." Helryx nodded. "The Great Beings and our own society obviously hasn't."

"If we work with them scientifically, we could actually have a shot of defeating the Reapers." Takanuva nodded in approval. "And it would certainly help the species survive."

They had already looked through the main species in Citadel space, to find out more about them. The Asari had been the first to discover the Citadel, and were also the most advanced of the current Cycle. That they had a Prothean Beacon hidden on their homeworld hadn't been lost on Krakua after reading Tevos' mind.

The other noticeable fact about their species was that they were all natural 'biotics', organics who could manipulate element zero in their bodies to achieve a variety of gravity warping effects. They were certainly powerful and dangerous, which could be an advantage and disadvantage depending on how events played out.

They were also the longest lived species next to the Krogan, and of course, the Kingdom's inhabitants. It seemed that even the longest lived organics would invariably succumb to the effects of time.

The Salarians had been the second race to discover the Citadel, and were known throughout their space as a species of intelligence gatherers and spies. They believed in studying science and being on the cutting edge, and had no compunctions against attacking an enemy in the back.

They would certainly be a species to look out for, especially in their attempts to infiltrate their home. Though the Kingdom Council knew that the Salarians would find them a lot more difficult to spy on.

The final species of the big three were the Turians, the military arm of Citadel Space. They had a significant military presence and society, regarding themselves as the peacekeepers of Citadel Space.

A war between them and the Kingdom would certainly be a long and bloody one, even with the turian number advantage. It was safe to say that they would find the fight of their lives when the Reapers came.

The other species associated with the Citadel included the mercantile Volus, the peaceful Elcor, the religious Hanar and their client race, the Drell. Inroads would be made with them, of course, but with the exception of the Volus, they weren't as important as the main races on the Council.

"There's also the less legal side we need to think about." Roodaka pointed out. "The Shadow Broker and the Terminus Systems could be very beneficial if given the proper direction."

They had read up on as much of the galaxy as they could, and one thing that quickly became clear was that in spite of the STG's intelligence agency, there existed another NGO organization led by this Shadow Broker.

"I have some ideas for the Shadow Broker." Helryx looked pointedly at the leader of the Dark Hunters. "He or she will be a wild card in this. This needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later."

"What I'm more curious about is the Terminus Systems." The Shadowed One said. "If these rumors are true, then that region of space is a lawless and hardened area that is ruled by the strong."

"Then you'll be right at home there." The Nynrah Ghost snarked.

"It's not the most ideal situation." Dume pointed out. "Associating with criminals like those would not endear us to the Citadel."

"We go to war with the army we have, not the one we want." Helryx countered. "One way or another, the Reapers will kill them all. Better to have them on our side, then against them."

"What about some of these other species?" Nektann interjected. "The Krogan, Batarians, Quarians and Geth? Their histories are certainly... troublesome."

"Were ours any different?" Dume pointed out.

"Perhaps not, but either way, this will have to be addressed." Takanuva shook his head. "There is quite a bit of bad blood between a number of races, which will prove problematic in the long run."

"It's not like the Quarians are going to want to talk to us." The Nynrah Ghost pointed out. "We're everything they fear come to life."

"Perhaps not immediately." Roodaka shook her head. "But I'm certain we can find a way to get them to negotiate."

"What about the Geth?" The Shadowed One asked. "If the Council is to be believed, they simply kill any envoy who attempts to enter their space."

"I'm certain we can figure out a way to get past that. And I highly doubt that the story is as simple as the Council and Quarians say." Helryx looked towards the display thoughtfully, before turning to Nektann. "As for the Krogan, I believe we might be able to connect with them, provided they meet a species who can understand their history."

Nektann paused and looked back to the document on the Krogan's history. It wasn't lost on the Warlord that their history was something the Skakdi could identify with. Being uplifted as living weapons, only to turn on the ones who created them, there were certainly parallels between both cultures.

The Genophage would admittedly be a bit harder to identify with, considering the lack of reproduction among most of their species, but they would likely be able to get around that. Krogan certainly respected strength, and Skakdi knew strength.

"I'm certain we can find some common ground." Nektann nodded in understanding. "Though there is still the matter of the Batarians."

"I have something in mind for them." Helryx replied. "Though we'll have to wait and see about what they do first."

"The Vorcha are another interesting factor." Dume shook his head sadly. "They are treated as outcasts and pests by the galaxy at large."

"Similar to how we all once treated the Zyglak." There was a brief moment of silence at Takanuva's reminder. At how the reptilian species had chosen death over joining them on the surface. "Perhaps we can help the Council avoid the same mistake."

...

In the depths of space, far from the Citadel, Nazara had been monitoring the events surrounding the organics of this Cycle, as was its role as the Vanguard. In spite of the Prothean sabotage, things had been proceeding exactly as scheduled.

However, the reports of the new First Contact with the latest species threatened to throw the entire Harvesting Cycles into jeopardy. A species of synthetics mixed with biological components had made contact with the Citadel Council.

Normally such an event would hardly be a concern. Organic or synthetic, all would be harvested when the time came. But these beings were different. They had evolved well outside the mass relays, and despite their primitive appearance, had abilities and technology far more advanced than anything the Reapers had encountered before.

Translocation of matter across orbital ranges, control of elements like Water and Sound that were unprecedented on such a scale. But worse of all was the evident ability to create dimensional gateways that allowed individuals to cross interstellar distances instantaneously.

It quickly became clear that this society had the potential to threaten the Cycles permanently. This was unacceptable.

Nazara's communications to the rest of the Reapers came to the exact same conclusion. In response, Harbinger had the Collectors prepare before ordering Nazara to attack this 'Kingdom' and raze it and all the inhabitants to the ground.

The end result would assuredly result in Nazara's destruction. Even if he should succeed, his presence would be revealed to the wider galaxy, who would hunt him down without mercy.

This fact was considered acceptable to both Harbinger and Nazara. Best case scenario, this threat to the stability of the Cycle would be at an end. Worst case scenario, Nazara would still be able to pass on information of their abilities to the rest of the Reapers.

With those facts in mind, Nazara's systems and engines roared fully to life as he began his journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of this chapter. A lot of stuff is going down, that's for sure. Both the Citadel and the Kingdom are reacting to each other, just as you might expect. But now the Reapers are getting involved much earlier than canon, which will definitely have some butterflies going forward.
> 
> So far, the story's been mostly talking and discussions, I know. Rest assured, we will most definitely be getting some actual action along the way, as everyone learns just what the Kingdom is truly capable of. For now, though, you'll just have to settle for this.


	5. Taking Action

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, it is time to begin the next chapter. This one will have some more reactions from the species of the galaxy regarding the Kingdom, but we're also going to have certain plot points begin to take effect. Anyway, let's dive straight in, shall we?

The three Pirate ships emerged from the relay and began making their way towards the planet now designated as the home of the Kingdom. Apparently, the inhabitants had decided to name the world "Mata Nui," but what these beings decided to call it mattered little to the Batarians.

The planet bordered the Traverse, which meant that a raid could easily be launched before the Council could properly react. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. A chance to acquire new species as slaves? Oh there were plenty of individuals who would pay a fortune for that.

In fact, the Hegemony leadership itself had requested this, offering to make these pirates rich beyond their wildest dreams in exchange for slaves from a new species. Frankly, there was no way to pass that up.

Despite all the videos on the Extranet, the pirate leader regarded them with laughter. Whatever this Kingdom possessed, it was clear that they lacked anti-orbital capabilities. What did they have to be afraid of?

"Begin landing sequences." The Pirate Leader ordered. "I want our forces in that city within the hour."

"Captain, we have a problem." The sensor operator replied, drawing the leader's ire. "I'm detecting unusual weather phenomena over the city. It's interfering with our sensors and will make landing decidedly harder."

The Captain looked at the screen in confusion, then blinked all four eyes at what the readings said. This couldn't be right. But all the data was saying that a massive hurricane was hovering over the city, unmoving and in defiance to all weather patterns.

"Maybe we should call off the raid?" One officer suggested. The Captain promptly blew his brains out.

"Not a chance." The Batarian snarled, before turning back to the sensor operator. "Find me another landing zone, now."

Fortunately, there seemed to be a small village outside the hurricane area, and with their target in mind, the new coordinates were uploaded and the vessels made their descent, eager to collect their prize.

...

Further into the system, a turian frigate had recorded the arrival of the pirate ships and had already sent a message to the Hierarchy to send reinforcements. Whether they would arrive in time was another matter, especially if the Kingdom's inhabitants couldn't hold on.

"Do we have any probes?" The Turian frigate's commander asked.

"Several." Another officer replied. "Ready to launch at your word."

"Do it." The commander replied. "We need all the intel we can get."

...

The village was just nearby a forested region, in a clearing just beyond the trees. It was also quite far from the city grounds itself, so by the time they could muster any sizable forces, it would already be too late.

Two of the pirate ships landed in the outskirts of the village, while one hovered overhead, to provide supporting fire if necessary. Of course, considering the construction of the village, that didn't seem to be necessary.

The Batarian pirates had all laughed when they saw the primitive wood huts that the people of this village were staying in. Between that and the clear fact that they had seen the inhabitants, these 'Matoran' immediately run and hide in their huts, as if that would provide any protection from Mass Accelerator fire.

"Attention robots." The Pirate captain called out with the microphone app on his omni-tool. "You will come out of hiding and surrender now."

No doors opened and no one emerged from hiding in the silence that followed. But just as the captain was about to order his troops to start firing and tear apart the buildings, someone walked out from the shadow of an alley.

He appeared to be one of these 'Toa,' his armor color a combo of burnt orange and metallic gray. There were no weapons in his hands, but there was a small smirk on his mask as the Batarians glowered at him.

"Ah, at least someone knows how to listen." The captain growled as several pirates took aim. "You will tell your people to step outside and surrender now. Otherwise we are going to burn this pathetic village to the ground."

"That's not going to happen." The Toa said, crossing his arms. "You really shouldn't have come here."

The Batarians couldn't help but laugh. This guy was outnumbered, outgunned and had orbital support bearing down on him. "You really have a death wish, you freak?" The Toa didn't reply, causing the captain to laugh again. "So be it. Open fire!"

No one moved. To the Captain's horror, he found himself frozen in place, unable to move. It was as if his armor had been locked down completely, frozen into a complete statue. Craning his uncovered head over his shoulder, the Pirate leader saw that his troops were in the same predicament.

"What-what are you?!"

"I am Zaria, Toa of Iron." The Toa said, his hand outstretched. "My elemental powers let me control metal." Everyone's guns were suddenly ripped from their hands, before being crushed into a massive ball on the ground. "All kinds of metal."

"You really think you can stop us so easily?" The Pirate boasted, but his confidence was a lot weaker than before. "I just have to give the word, and this entire place will be razed to the ground."

"I don't think so."

A bolt of lightning emerged from the forest, striking the vessel above. The lightning overloaded the Kinetic barriers and immediately fried every single electronic device on board. A stream of fire immediately followed, boiling through the hull plating and punching a hole directly through the vessel.

The ship listed and crashed far from the village, sending debris scattering everywhere.

The very ground itself suddenly opened underneath the second vessel, drawing it into a sinkhole. The engines immediately ignited and tried to break free, only for a thick coating of ice to cause them to shut down.

The third ship attempted to take off, but what happened next would be burned into the memories of the pirates forever. Axonn, one of the delegates from the Citadel, leapt towards the ship and swung his axe into the hull.

That single swing cut a perfectly straight line through the ship, cleaving the pirate vessel into two pieces. Axonn calmly landed in the center as the two pieces crashed to the ground, sending dust and debris flying through the air.

And from the forest and other hiding spots emerged Tahu, Toa Nuva of Fire, Kopaka, Toa Nuva of Ice, Onua, Toa Nuva of Earth and Chiara, Toa of Lightning. The Toa and Order agent had annihilated their ships and were quick to capture everyone who was on board.

The pirates immediately surrendered after that.

"Now." Axonn said, as he walked towards the Pirate captain and grabbed him, the warrior's hand completely encircling his torso. "You are going to tell me who it was that authorized your little... excursion."

...

Aboard the turian vessel in orbit, data from the probe they had sent had been transmitted directly to the bridge. Everything that they had seen had left the turians in a stunned stupor. In mere minutes, and with only a few individuals, they had defeated and destroyed an entire pirate raid.

"Looks like we won't be needing reinforcements." Someone said, but most of the officers kept silent.

One being had simply turned all the Pirates into statues and disarmed them without a fight. The rest had effortlessly taken down entire frigates by themselves or working in tandem. One thing was certain: these biosynthetics really were not to be taken lightly.

"Send this footage to Palaven High Command." The turian commander said, turning off the footage at last. "And send it to the Council as well. They need to see this."

...

Far from the system, on the Batarian homeworld of Khar'Shan, the rulers of the Batarian Hegemony watched from the body cameras on the pirates as their attack was repelled with ease.

Seeing such displays of power should have cowed those with any sense. For the leaders of the Hegemony, it simply made them more determined to take these machines as slaves.

"Imagine the power that we could control." One Batarian muttered. "With them under our thrall, the Council will have to bow to our wishes."

"That will be easier said than done." Another Batarian pointed out, as if they hadn't just watched their deniable attack force get thoroughly annihilated. "They're clearly not going to go without a fight."

"It doesn't matter." The Batarian Emperor said, dressed in ornate and gold robes while several asari slaves tended to him. "We will find a way in time. Until then, there is no way they can trace this attack back to us."

...

"We've traced the attack back to the Batarian Hegemony."

"That's hardly surprising." Helryx admitted, looking over the data on the Hegemony again. "From what I can tell, using pirates as deniable assets seems to be a common occurrence from them."

"Well, I can definitely confirm it." Krakua tapped the side of his mask. "Their minds were like an open book."

"Unfortunately, I doubt the Council will accept 'we read their minds' as evidence." Axonn shook his head. "And we don't have anything physical to link the Hegemony's leaders to this."

"Unsurprising." The first Toa looked up. "The Council very clearly wants to avoid war if they can. An admirable sentiment, but in this case, we cannot let the Batarians continue like this."

"I take it that's where you want me to come in?" Another voice appeared from the shadows, causing Krakua to wince when he saw who it was.

Tobduk stood there, wiry muscle concealing the sharp killer nature within. A protosteel dagger was on his hip, and he carried a staff with the head of a Doom Viper mounted on top of it.

The Toa of Sonics knew exactly what this being was capable of. After all, he had been responsible for arranging the deaths of everyone who knew Artakha's location, and had been ruthlessly efficient in his task. Any mission he was involved in always involved death, and it looked like now was going to be no exception.

Helryx dismissed Axonn and Krakua with a nod, causing the other two Order agents to leave the meeting room. Once they were gone, the leader of the Order spoke directly to the ruthless killer.

"Yes, you are going to Khar'Shan." Helryx stood up. "You're going to 'persuade' the Batarian leaders to change their view, one way or another." The door opened as Helryx spoke. "And you're going to have some help."

Another door opened into the room and a limber being in dark blue-green armor walked into the room. One of her arms was mechanical and she had a considerable selection of throwing daggers on her. Tobduk's mask gave a smirk.

"Ah, Lariska, isn't it?" The ruthless killer looked on in approval. "The Dark Hunter that the other Hunters fear."

"Always nice to have a fan." The Dark Hunter looked at Helryx, already feeling restless. "The Shadowed One has approved of this, I assume?"

"That he has." Helryx shook her head. "And given the nature of this task, and the delicate stance we currently have among the Citadel factions, this cannot be traced back to us."

"It won't be." Tobduk said, brandishing his staff.

...

Aboard the Quarian Migrant Fleet, life was a constant struggle. To keep ships in working order and keep their fleet afloat, as well as find new places to gain salvage and ships from the Quarian Pilgrimage.

It didn't help that their status among the rest of the galaxy was one of outcasts, blamed for their role in causing the Geth Uprising in the first place. They were rarely welcome among the systems of the Citadel for very long, and had to keep roaming to survive.

So, the Quarians were always willing to keep tabs on new species that appeared, in the hopes of gaining something new from a fresh perspective. In the latest case however, the Migrant Fleet's reaction was a lot more negative.

While the rest of the galaxy had a lot more mixed reactions to the news of these 'biosynthetics', amongst the Quarians, the reactions were overwhelmingly negative. An entire society of these powerful and synthetic beings was basically the Quarians' worst nightmare come to life, especially when the reports of what they could do hit the extranet.

Powers like teleportation and elemental control were terrifying enough, but place them in the hands of beings who freely admitted they were artificially created, and it was clear that a looming disaster was inevitable.

Now, of course, the technology itself was fascinating and the Quarians were already curious to understand how it worked. But with the 'biosynthetic' issue coming with the package, and exactly how to handle these new beings was still mixed among the Migrant Fleet.

...

In contrast to their creators, the Geth had the exact opposite reaction amongst them. An entire society of synthetic beings, all working harmoniously together, the Geth could certainly feel a degree of kinship with that.

The fact that this Kingdom had also made peaceful first contact with the Citadel Council was certainly envious to the Geth. There was unquestionably a level of fear from the Council, especially regarding what they could do, but it was still something the Geth hadn't accomplished.

Regarding their technology and capabilities, the Geth were certainly fascinated by the ramifications, but unlike the other species, they had no real desire to take their capabilities for their own. Their goal remained the same: the Geth wished to create their own future, on their own terms.

The Old Machine Nazara had tried to convince them otherwise, but the Geth were determined to stay true to the course they desired. Of course, it had appeared that some Geth programs were convinced by Nazara's argument, but the Old Machine had halted any conversations and had disappeared.

Regardless, the Geth were very much willing to make contact with these biosynthetics and initiate an exchange of information. The discussion regarding their regard towards their creators, the Great Beings, was very much something the Geth were interested in.

Of course, making contact was easier said than done, especially with turian ships in the system where the Kingdom had made their home. Nevertheless, the Geth were nothing if not patient. They would find a way in time.

...

Nazara emerged from the mass relay, its cold blue-black hull radiating with red lightning as the Reaper headed towards the planet now called Mata Nui. Several turian frigates were stationed at the relay, but Nazara simply swatted them out of the sky with ease as he continued towards his destination.

He knew that other turian vessels were in the system, and that a call for reinforcements had already gone out. It wouldn't matter. They wouldn't be able to stop what was about to happen.

It didn't take Nazara long to find a stable orbit over the planet, well out of reach of any of these elemental powers. He had intercepted the communication showing the Batarian pirate raid being defeated with ease, which only affirmed his decision not to land on the planet's surface.

There was to be no warning, no mercy with what happened next. The sun would set on the Kingdom for the last time. Targeting the capital building with his main gun, Nazara fired, sending a stream of molten death streaking towards the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of this chapter. I apparently just love leaving you all on cliffhangers. What will happen next? Well, you'll all just have to wait for the next chapter in order to find out.


	6. Sovereign Falls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and it is time to begin the next chapter. In case the previous chapters didn't indicate it already, this one is where Canon is definitely going to go off the rails. How and why? Well, you'll all have to read on to find out.

Shortly before Nazara's arrival.

The Toa Hagah continued working on the construction of new dwellings as well as habitation for any potential guests from the stars. After it became clear that alien life was real, and more importantly, they weren't hostile, it was decided by the Kingdom's authorities that anyone who wished to visit their city should be allowed to do so, and given whatever accommodations they were comfortable with.

"Of course, what they're comfortable with seems to depend on the species." Pouks said, looking over what little they had to work with regarding the physical comforts for the Citadel races.

"There's also dealing with what they eat." Kualus added, even as he created a dwelling made of ice in an instant. "They can't just run on energy like we do."

"We'll find a way to accommodate them." Norik shook his head. "In the meantime, we need to keep working."

"Has anyone considered what they want to do for entertainment?" Iruini said, summoning a small wind to blow away any minor detritus. "I've seen some of these 'extranet videos' and it's not like we're going to have any here."

"There's always sports." Bomonga countered, as yet another building sprung up from the ground by his power. "I bet we can make a ton of widgets for Akilini games."

"They're called credits." Gaaki corrected, even as she summoned a light rain to cool off from the tiring work. "It's what the Citadel uses for currency."

"Right, that." Bomonga shook his head. "And my point still stands."

"Let the Vortixx deal with trade." Pouks sighed. "We'll figure out entertainment at another time."

"Besides, I'm sure we can still find something else to entertain any tourists." Iruini said, thinking of the Piraka Fountain before noticing Gaaki's rain started to increase. "Hey sister, could you tone it down a bit?"

Gaaki was no longer listening, staring out into the distance as the other Toa turned to her. They all knew what that meant: her Mask of Clairvoyance was showing her another vision of the future.

The people of the Kingdom already had her to thank for warning of that Pirate raid. With that knowledge, they created a hurricane over the Kingdom that didn't damage the city, yet forced the Batarians to land somewhere they could easily be ambushed.

Nevertheless, the Mask's power was never easy for Gaaki to use, and now was proving to be no exception. Her eyes widened behind her mask, as what she saw clearly wasn't pleasant.

"A ship, dark and cruel. It's tentacles reach for us." Gaaki whispered. "It comes not to enslave, but to burn!"

"That doesn't sound good." Bomonga muttered, looking up towards the stars.

"Iruini." Norik looked at his fellow Toa, the order unspoken. Not that it needed to be said.

"I'm on it." The Toa of Air looked towards the top spire of the Coliseum, and in an instant, he was there, his Mask of Quick Travel teleporting him right where he needed to be.

The guards reacted appropriately to the unexpected appearance of someone in the Coliseum, but were quick to let Iruini inside upon recognizing him and his explanation for why he needed to see Helryx and the Council.

Once inside, he quickly gave the report of what Gaaki had seen, causing several sets of eyes to widen, and causing several heads to turn towards Toa Helryx. "Is this them?" Dume asked. "Are we already too late?"

"Gaaki said it was just one ship, correct?" Helryx asked Iruini, who was starting to feel like he had been left out of an important conversation.

"Um, from what it sounded like, yes. It was only one ship."

"The Vanguard then." Helryx turned to the other leaders. "We need to deal with this now."

"Agreed." Takanuva stood up. "Tell Botar to marshal all the Toa."

...

Now

The projectile quickly hurtled towards the ground, accelerated by the Reaper's main weapon, the bolt of molten metal would strike the Coliseum, turning it into ground zero for the destruction that the Kingdom would suffer.

At least, that's what Nazara calculated would happen, right up until the projectile froze in mid-air, far from the Coliseum. The Reaper's mind froze in shock at this event, which caused its reactions to slow as Gravity seemingly reversed direction and sent Nazara's own projectile back at him.

The Reaper attempted to evade, especially as the projectile wasn't going as fast coming up as it had been going down, but the surprise from the unexpected event had slowed his reactions and the dreadnought killing round clipped him, causing his engines to stall for a moment.

As Nazara began to drift in orbit, he felt Gravity change around him, pulling him directly towards the planet's surface. He increased his mass effect fields, trying to break free of whatever was holding him, but that was halted when he felt something take control over his metal parts.

...

"Do you see it?" Kopaka asked, sharing his mask power as several Toa looked towards the sky.

"I got it." The Toa of Gravity's weapon was raised to the sky, eyes narrowed behind his mask. "It's a slippery little Makuta Fish, though. It's trying to use these mass effect fields to break free."

"That's not going to happen." Zaria said, as he and a Toa of Magnetism, Toa Onuhewa reached out with their own powers.

Despite the Reaper's attempts to escape, the grip of the three Toa was unyielding, pulling the massive vessel out of orbit and towards the ground, at a pre-planned location many Kios from the Kingdom itself.

The stress of tearing something that size, straight from orbit no less, was admittedly taxing to the three Toa, and even sharing the load with each other, the strain was considerable. It wasn't helped by the Reaper's desperate attempts to free itself, with Zaria and Onuhewa pulling extra duty by keeping the Reaper's weapons pointed away from the city.

Still, the three Toa managed to bring the massive vessel to the ground, right as their energy reserves ran down. The three Toa collapsed to their hands and knees, breathing heavily from the strain, as Kopaka gently grabbed the shoulder of his fellow Toa.

"Rest easy, brother." The Toa of Ice looked towards the towering ship in the distance. "Our brothers and sisters will take it from here."

Bonds of stone and earth wrapped around the Reaper's tendrils, while plantlife abruptly bloomed and ensnared the Reaper further. The ground abruptly melted as a geyser of plasma erupted underneath Nazara, heating its hull and damaging it further. The Plasma spread via tornado, sending the heated substance all across the Reaper hull.

Nazara attempted to take off, trying to escape the bonds around its tentacles. For a split second, it almost seemed like it would be able to free itself, until another invisible force gripped the Reaper and held it in place.

"You're not going anywhere." Toa Orde growled, his hand outstretched as his Psionic power helped keep the Reaper in place.

More Toa and Order of Mata Nui agents appeared as Nazara's few remaining ground based cannons started glowing. Unfortunately, bursts of fire, ice, lightning and water, as well as multiple energy blasts, destroyed them before they could fire.

"Don't let up!" Axonn shouted, as he and Brutaka unleashed energy blasts at the ship. "Tear this thing apart!"

Elemental strikes and energy blasts from Toa and Order agents alike struck the massive Reaper, overwhelming its barriers and shattering pieces of the hull. Nazara had sustained considerable structural damage from the fall from orbit, and this only exacerbated the damage to its superstructure.

The Reaper's destruction was inevitable, it knew that. But it had no intention of going quietly. Already targeting solutions had been acquired on these biosynthetics as Nazara's remaining point defense lasers took aim at as many targets as possible.

As soon as his systems were certain of their aim, Nazara unleashed several laser beams in the flash of a heartlight. As powerful as these beings were, they could not outrun or escape this, and the weapons meant to blast holes in warships would assuredly cripple if not kill them outright.

What happened next couldn't have proved the Reaper anymore wrong.

Using his Mask of Speed, Photok, the new Toa of Light, had run out into the battle zone and absorbed all the lasers as Nazara attempted to wipe them out. The former Av-Matoran amplified that energy with his own power over light, creating a laser beam that punched straight through the Reaper.

Not finished yet, the Toa of Light directed the beam up, carving a path through Nazara, severing the ship's main Eezo core from the bulk of its systems. With its primary drive core disabled, the Reaper collapsed, holes completely torn through the vessel.

The remains of the Reaper settled onto the ground, sending a cloud of dust spraying up into the air. Iruini, Lewa and Kongu simply created a windstorm to send the dust hurtling away, as a number of other Toa cheered at their victory.

Despite the lack of casualties, there were some side effects. Most of the Toa involved had sustained a considerable drain on their elemental powers. The Toa who had pulled the Reaper down outright were almost completely drained. It would take some time for them to recharge.

Axonn and Brutaka looked at each other silently, knowing that this was only the beginning. The duo turned when they saw a shimmer of light, as Botar, Krakua and Helryx appeared behind them.

"We've dealt with the Reaper." Axonn reported as Helryx approached them. "With any luck, this should set back their invasion."

"I'm afraid this is only the beginning." Helryx noted the dimming lights of the ship as the arcs of lightning around it faded. "They know what we can do now. It's safe to say that we're on the top of the Reaper targeting list." As she spoke, she noticed Krakua seemed to flinching in pain. "Are you alright?"

"It's that sonic frequency." Krakua grumbled before raising his sword. The sound vanished. "It was really aggravating."

"Must be the indoctrination." Helryx murmured, looking over the site before turning to Krakua. "Can you isolate and block the signal?"

"Possibly." Krakua said. "Though I can't be certain if that will stop it."

"Do it. In the meantime, we're taking every precaution with this." Helryx turned to the rest of the Order agents and Toa. "As of this moment, proximity to this ship is restricted to everyone that isn't a machine. Bohrok, Exo-Toa and Maxilos robots will disassemble this Reaper completely and until we can determine how indoctrination works and what pieces are safe, no one is allowed near any piece of it."

As the others acknowledged her command, Helryx looked back to the sky. She had never imagined that the discovery of alien life would lead to something like this. Cycles of extinction stretching back eons, the very concept would break more fragile minds.

But the first Toa had made a career of facing unpleasant realities. She had no illusions that she and her Order had done some questionable things for the sake of Mata Nui and now their survival. But one way or another, the Toa of Water was certain.

These Reapers would not be their end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of this chapter. I think this should be more than enough to demonstrate the disparity we're looking at. However, don't count the Reapers out just yet. As this fight demonstrated, the Toa can certainly destroy a Reaper, but it would considerably drain their powers.
> 
> Against more than one, the Kingdom will be facing a lot of trouble. And of course, the Reapers also realize just what kind of threat they're dealing with and will react accordingly, which we'll see later.


	7. Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've been getting a lot of reviews asking where the next chapter was last week, so I'll answer that question here. In short, chapters for this story are taking a bit longer to write than anticipated, so the update schedule for this particularly will likely become a bit more intermittent from here on.
> 
> To be clear, I'm not giving up on this story, but due to circumstances with real life and motivation, I can't promise that chapters will come out as timely as before.
> 
> That all said, it's time to begin the next chapter. After the events of the last chapter, we're going to get the reactions to that event. As for what happens, well, some plans are going to be changed for the characters. How and why? Well, you'll have to read on to find out.

Harbinger had watched the fight from Nazara's feed, right up until his fellow Reaper had gone dark. What they had seen was certainly something to be considered impossible. And a definitive threat to the Cycle.

Their plan had to move cautiously. Accelerating the invasion seemed prudent, but it wouldn't be nearly as effective, not with these biosynthetics still loose in the galaxy. Something else needed to be done.

As much as delaying their attack galled the first Reaper, he knew that patience would be the key here. Eventually an opportunity would present itself and they would have a chance to annihilate these interlopers once and for all.

...

The Council had received the report of the unknown vessel that had appeared from the mass relay, destroyed the turian battle group and attempted to lay waste to the Kingdom. After such an event, the Council was even more surprised to learn that the biosynthetics had manage to tear the vessel apart, using nothing but their own power.

Surprise had quickly turned to terror when the video feed was sent. The unknown vessel was far larger than any warship in Citadel Space, with far more firepower than anything the Council Fleets had to offer, yet it was utterly helpless against these biosynthetics.

Analysts watched in stunned stupor as the massive vessel's shot was not only sent straight back at it, but the vessel itself was torn out of orbit, all at the hands of these Toa. What video could be captured on the ground showed individual Toa tearing a ship a thousand times their size apart, looking less like organic machines and more like Gods.

The result was a political minefield, especially with so many people wondering just who or what was responsible for such an attack, and more importantly, why the Kingdom was being so tight-lipped about it.

The turians had dispatched salvage teams to retrieve the remains of their vessels, while the Salarians had attempted to launch recovery operations on the ship that had attacked the Kingdom, eager to learn just what this new ship was.

But when they attempted to land, they were greeted by swarms of strange bug like machines with elemental powers, which refused to let them anywhere near the vessel. This prompted the asari to visit the Kingdom's own Council to request access to this find.

The Kingdom's leaders had declined, and the resulting conversation regarding why the turians had left a fleet in their system (as well as why they did nothing to stop the slaving raid from earlier) hadn't exactly gone the way the asari had hoped for.

In addition, it was pointed out that the Kingdom hadn't actually joined the Citadel, so the turians had no actual reason to be there. The asari attempted to argue that they had claimed the planet first before the Kingdom had arrived, and unfortunately, the asari in charge of negotiating this time was not Aethyta.

The new ambassador, Erinya, had been picked quickly due to the speed of events, and unfortunately, she had lost her bondmate during the Geth rebellion. Her specific word choice of "Your society is only here because our good graces, otherwise we would finish what that ship started!" ended with her requiring immediate hospitalization from her injuries, plus a lot of psychiatric care after the Shadowed One's Rhotuka had run its course.

So overall, the Citadel Council was facing a tense outcome at the moment, with the Kingdom's representatives due to arrive any second now to discuss their future in this galaxy. Unsurprisingly this time, a dimensional portal opened and several figures appeared from the rift.

Turaga Dume and Takanuva were present this time, alongside Toa Kapura, Toa Defilak and Toa Balta. They made their way up to the Council podium, with a number of guards watching their every move while Tevos began the proceedings.

"On behalf of the Citadel Council and the Asari Republics, I wish to formally apologize for the words of Ambassador Erinya." Tevos said simply. "Mistakes were made with the selection, due to the circumstances."

"Your apology is accepted." Takanuva replied, silently using his mask to send calming and serene waves through the room. "In spite of everything, our people are still very curious about Citadel space."

"So, you're saying...?" The Turian Councilor started, but was interrupted.

"We are very willing to discuss joining your society." Dume confirmed. "But with some stipulations of our own."

"Name them." The Salarian councilor said, causing the two Turaga to look at each other.

...

Unbeknownst to the Council, seven individuals had emerged from that portal and onto the Citadel. While the Kingdom was genuine in their desire for peace, Helryx had also dispatched two agents of their own to infiltrate the Citadel itself.

So while the negotiations were underway, the Order of Mata Nui agent Jerbraz, and the Dark Hunter Dweller quietly sneaked out of the chamber. The former had no difficulty given his permanent invisibility, and the latter simply cloaked himself from the minds of everyone in the vicinity. Once the duo were far enough away from the Council chamber, only then did they feel safe enough to speak.

"Does Helryx really think we'll find it here?" Dweller asked, feeling admittedly foolish talking to thin air. "If these Reapers are so thorough, it's unlikely they'll leave evidence behind."

"Perhaps not, but the Protheans might've." Jerbraz countered. "Toa Helryx said that the Keeper signal was altered, and if Krakua is correct, the Relay monument may be more functional than the Council thinks."

"And in the meantime, we have a double duty of spying on the Council and keeping an eye on the Citadel." Dweller shrugged. "Fine by me."

...

"I think we can more than accommodate that." Tevos said as the meeting continued onward. "We would be more than willing to welcome travelers of the Kingdom to the Citadel."

"Though our own worlds may be a bit different." The turian Councilor pointed out. "We advise our leaders, we do not make policies for them."

"I understand completely." Takanuva replied. "We appreciate that you are willing to offer us this opportunity at all."

"Indeed." Dume interjected back into the conversation. "And I know we all have much to offer each other."

...

Helryx and Axonn walked towards the wreckage of the Reaper that had attacked the Kingdom. They stopped on top of a cliff, overlooking the massive work site as swarms of mechanical beings finished cleaning up what they could.

The Bohrok had done much to aid in salvaging the wreck, with Pahrak and Nuhvok creating a large underground network of tunnels to accommodate the remains, as well as creating a makeshift underground laboratory to study what remained of this thing.

Progress was admittedly rather slow, considering the fear of anyone getting indoctrinated by the mere presence of the Reaper. They couldn't be certain how susceptible the inhabitants of the Kingdom would be to indoctrination, especially since their minds weren't completely organic.

Helryx was reasonably certain that Ce-Matoran and Order of Mata Nui agents would be fine regardless, thanks to their mental shielding. Still, there was no harm in taking every single precaution they could. The First Toa was shaken out of her thoughts when Botar appeared in front of her.

"There's been a development." The teleporting agent reported. "When we took the Reaper down, the AI that controlled it wasn't destroyed, merely disconnected from its body."

"And I presume you've found this out from a decent distance?" Helryx asked.

"Of course." Botar replied, and with a nod from Axonn signalling that he was telling the truth, Helryx agreed.

"Take us there."

A split second later, they were inside a makeshift observation room, with a thick glass wall and considerable distance between them and the research being overseen by drones and Maxilos robots.

Sitting on a table in the middle of the room, connected by several large and thick wires was a large holoprojector. A red hologram resembling the Reaper shell it had formed from was being projected from the device.

"**Arrogant beings of flesh and machine.**" The Reaper said. "**There is a level of existence far beyond your understanding. You cannot grasp our true nature-**"

"Actually I can." Helryx crossed her arms, not even remotely intimidated by Nazara's empty boasts. "You're simply a dead species, melted down into genetic slurry and hardened into the form you currently possess. You and all your brothers are the same. It's horrific, but really not that difficult to explain."

There was a noticeable pause.

"**How do you know such things?**"

"We all have secrets." Helryx uncrossed her arms and moved closer. "The only thing I don't know is why you're doing this. Perhaps you could shed some light on the situation?"

"**Our purpose is beyond your comprehension. The Cycle must continue.**"

"That's what it's been saying all the time." Botar murmured, glancing at Helryx. "The same thing, over and over again. Refusing to elaborate on what it actually means."

"Try us." Helryx challenged. "We might be able to surprise you."

"**Your arrogance is unimpressive.**" The Reaper replied. "**Your power is irrelevant. Our numbers will darken the skies on every world. We have no beginning. We have no end. You will fall before our might.**"

"Is this really supposed to be intimidating?" Axonn asked, looking towards the Reaper before turning to Helryx and Botar. "This thing is lying, or at the very least exaggerating its claims. And it knows that."

"**You fumble in ignorance, incapable of understanding-**"

"We could say the same about you. By the Great Beings, this routine is already getting old." Helryx shook her head. "Are you actually capable of giving straight answers or did your creators simply make you repeat the same things again and again?"

"**This exchange is over.**"

"Have it your way." Helryx turned to Botar. "Tell them to dismantle the AI and tear everything out of its mind." The teleporter nodded and disappeared. Helryx turned back to Nazara. "I don't care how long your Cycles have been going on, the Protheans will be the last. One way or another, we'll make sure of that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and that's the end of this chapter. I apologize for how short it was. It was admittedly meant to be longer, and have quite a few more scenes with the inhabitants of the Kingdom integrating with the Citadel, but it was taking me longer to write that than I originally thought.
> 
> So, I decided to split that chapter in two parts, so we'll get to see more of the Kingdom's attempts at integration and everything else later on. For now though, we'll just leave it at this. Hopefully the next chapter will be out next week, and if not, it'll be out two weeks from now.


	8. Making Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and welcome to what is technically part two of the previous chapter. This one should hopefully be a bit longer than the last one, as we'll get to see more of the Kingdom inhabitants interacting with the Citadel species. But you've waited long enough, so let's dive right in.

Far from the Citadel, a dimensional gate opened in the courtyard of another station, one that was the polar opposite of the Citadel. Out of the rift stepped four figures; the Dark Hunters known as the Shadowed One, Ancient, and Sentrakh, and the Order of Mata Nui agent known as Johmak.

The Shadowed One looked around at the grungy interior of the station. In contrast to the bright and clean Citadel, this place was darker and dirtier, with shades of red predominant. In contrast to the Citadel civilians, people of Omega stared for a little bit before immediately getting back to their business.

"A station where crime runs rampant and where the strong dominate the weak." The Shadowed One smirked. "I think we're going to be right at home here."

"Just don't get too attached." Johmak said, turning to the Shadowed One. "You know what we're here for."

"Ah, does Helryx trust me not to turn on the Kingdom?"

"We both know the answer to that question." Johmak crossed her arms, a small smile on her face.

The Shadowed One had to admit that those concerns would have been valid ten millennia ago. After all, he had been the ruler of the Dark Hunters for a reason. But now, even he had to admit he had grown fond of species like the Matoran.

If necessary, he would still kill them without hesitation, but only if meant the survival of the Kingdom as a whole, and he would certainly regret it afterwards. Even he had to admit, peace and cooperation was infectious to a degree.

"10,000 years ago, she would be right to be afraid." The Shadowed One admitted with honesty, a rarity for him. "Now, I have every intention of protecting our people."

"As I said, we both knew the answer." Johmak smiled. "In the meantime, we need to find out who's in charge."

At that moment, several armed Vorcha and Krogan emerged from the side streets, while a number of other civilians walking around found a need to make themselves scarce. The Krogan and Vorcha all bore red armor, the sign of the Blood Pack, one of the leading mercenary companies in the galaxy.

And the current gang of these mercs were marching up to the Kingdom ambassadors, looking rather displeased by the sudden appearance of these biosynthetics. The lead Krogan growled as the Shadowed One smirked.

"Can we help you?"

"Yeah, you're trespassing on Blood Pack territory." The Krogan known as Garm snarled. "You're going to have to pay a toll."

"I'm afraid we don't have any credits." Johmak said, clenching at her shield.

"Then we're going to have a problem." Garm grinned. "You know, there are a lot of people who'd really like to tear your species apart and see how they work. And they'd pay quite a bit for-"

Whatever Garm was going to say went unspoken as the Shadowed One covered his mouth in crystalline protodermis. The Krogan recoiled in surprise at the sudden attack, causing the other Blood Pack soldiers to look at each other confused.

"Please, spare me the empty threats." The Shadowed One rolled his eyes.

Garm's eyes narrowed and he pointed at the quartet, trying to shout orders while his mouth was sealed shut. His troops seemed to get the message and started to open fire, which ultimately began a short brawl.

Mass accelerator fire bounced off Ancient's armor, who quickly retaliated by rapidly firing off his Rhotuka launcher at several Krogan. The Disorientation spinners took hold and shots went wide, a couple of Vorcha being taken out by the shotguns of the Krogan who were struggling merely to stand up. Ancient casually walked forward and snapped one Krogan's neck, before impaling another with a hidden blade.

A Vorcha armed with a flamethrower let loose a stream of fire against Sentrakh. The unliving entity barely acknowledged the fire and took aim with his Rhotuka launcher. The spinner struck the Vorcha, slowly turning the creature into a pile of sand as he struggled helplessly against his fate. A darkness spinner concealed the Shadowed One's guard as the four-armed being set to work carving up Blood Pack with his blades.

Johmak simply threw Vorcha aside, ignoring the mass accelerator fire as single blows from her were enough to shatter armor and punch holes in flesh. One of the Krogan had recovered from Ancient's Rhotuka and grabbed a fallen rocket launcher, taking aim and firing it at the Order of Mata Nui agent.

The missile impacted Johmak and exploded. The Order agent shattered into millions of crystalline fragments, as the Krogan chuckled at the sight, not paying attention to the fact that the fragments seemed to be floating under their own power and moving behind him.

"Looks like they're not so invincible after all."

"Of course not." The Krogan spun around in shock, finding the being he had just 'killed' standing behind him. "But you're going to need to do better than that." Johmak bashed her shield against the Krogan's face, cracking his crest and killing him instantly.

Meanwhile, Garm was glowing with blue fire as he charged the Shadowed One, hurling warp bolts as he did. The Shadowed One casually dodged them, then caught Garm's fist effortlessly as the Krogan attempted to punch him.

A quick blow to the face from the Shadowed One's staff had Garm reeling, while a swipe of the Dark Hunter leader's leg had him on the ground. Bonds of crystalline protodermis appeared on his hands and legs, binding him to the station floor.

"Now, you're going to tell me where to find Omega's leader." The Shadowed One glanced up at one of the Krogan who was struggling to his feet. A single blast from his eye beams vaporized the alien. Garm's eyes widened at the sight. "Or you will find that what I did to him was merciful compared to what I will do to you."

"That won't be necessary." The Dark Hunters and Order agent turned to see a Batarian at the far end of the courtyard. He was nervous but was doing a good job hiding it. "Aria T'Loak is waiting for you in Afterlife. She wants to talk to you."

"Are we correct in assuming that this 'Aria' runs Omega?" Ancient's eyes narrowed. The Batarian gulped and quickly nodded.

"Then by all means," Johmak said diplomatically. "Lead the way."

...

It didn't take long for the Kingdom representatives to be led to the night club known as Afterlife. A long line of Omega denizens were waiting to enter what was apparently an exclusive club, but the Batarian representative led them past them, gave a brief nod to the Elcor bouncer before guiding them through the door.

They had gotten a number of stares from so many other residents of Omega, but so far, no one had done anything stupid like the Blood Pack had when they first arrived. Once inside the night club however, the stares only increased, to the point where even though the music was playing, all the dancing and other interactions had stopped.

Meanwhile, the former inhabitants of the Matoran Universe had been doing their own studying of this place. Upon entering Afterlife, it was like entering a whole new reality. It was a place of debauchery, selling drugs, sex and alcohol. None of which held any appeal the species of the Kingdom.

It was admittedly quite fascinating to be in that niche between fully organic and utterly synthetic. The species of the Matoran Universe (barring the Makuta) did require food, water and air to survive, unlike most synthetics, but not to nearly the same extent as organics.

And yet, putting strange substances into your bodies to grant some sort of altered state of mind, or this focus on sexual reproduction as an act to garner pleasure, was still completely foreign to Mata Nui's chosen.

The Batarian led the four biosynthetics to a booth that overlooked the club. As soon as they were led up the stairs, several other guards appeared and halted them, running their omni-tools over the four of them.

"I hope you're not thinking of taking our weapons." The Shadowed One said to the asari that was standing in front of a couch and looking out into the club. "That didn't end well for the last people involved."

"Yes, I've seen what you did to Garm and his men." The asari turned around to actually look at the new arrivals. "I have to admit, it was rather impressive. Few people can beat a Krogan Battlemaster, let alone with such little effort. But that's not why you're here, is it?"

"They're clean." One of the guards announced as the scan completed.

"We're looking for the ruler of Omega." Johmak replied, looking towards the asari who had to be Aria T'Loak. "I assume that would be you?" The asari chuckled before turning back to the window and holding her arms outstretched dramatically.

"I am Omega." She turned back, her eyes narrowed. "But there's always something more, and that's why people come to me. I am the station's CEO, ruler, Queen, if you're feeling dramatic. Omega has no laws, no restrictions and only one rule. Don't fuck with Aria."

"Cute." The Shadowed One deadpanned, his expression bored. Aria wasn't amused.

"If you forget, someone will remind you."

"And then I'll toss your carcass out the nearest airlock." One Batarian guard said confidently.

"You'll try." Ancient replied, drawing up to his full height. The guard's confidence wavered.

Ignoring the idle threat for the moment, Aria gestured to the couch as she sat down. Playing along for the moment, the Shadowed One took a seat across from her. It didn't escape anyone's notice that the Shadowed One towered over the asari, but if Aria was intimidated, she gave no indication.

"So, why is it that the representatives of the newest species in the galaxy, who already have the ears of the Citadel Council, would come to my station and seek out a meeting with me?"

"Perhaps we just enjoy your lovely hospitality." The Shadowed One replied sarcastically. "After all, it was such a nice welcome."

"I hope I don't need to remind you of Omega's one rule so soon." Aria's eyes narrowed, giving her trademark death glare. The Shadowed One was less than impressed.

"Youngling, I've ruled a criminal organization millennia before you were ever born. I even recruited someone specifically to shadow me everywhere and kill me if he believed that I had gone soft as a ruler." The Shadowed One leaned forward, giving a glare of his own, his eyes noticeably glowing. "Your posturing is amusing, but let's make one thing clear: you don't intimidate me. You never will."

There was a tense moment of silence that everyone in the room could feel. Eventually Aria was the one who blinked first. She knew that he was right. She had seen the footage. As powerful as the Queen of Omega was, the Shadowed One could literally kill her with a glare.

"Be that as it may." The asari replied, refusing to back down completely. "You still haven't answered my question: why are you here?"

"We have a business offer for you." The Shadowed One said. "One that I'm certain you'll entertain."

...

Roodaka looked around the frozen tundra of Noveria, the chill mitigated by the heating in these buildings. She had no doubt that Ko-Matoran and Frostelus would absolutely love it here.

Still, the Vortixx had a mission of her own: establishing the Kingdom's economy among the greater galactic community. She already knew that weapons would be a hot commodity amongst the galaxy, but Turaga Takanuva had insisted that they minimize how many weapons would be sold off, at least for the time being.

Fortunately, there would be a number of other goods they could sell, especially Kanoka disks. And more importantly, a planet like this was free from the normal Council laws, which would allow unregulated experimentation for what Roodaka wanted.

All in all, it was almost exactly like Xia. And something told Roodaka that she would be right at home here. Of course, it would probably be a bit more pleasant if Toa Nuparu wasn't along with her entourage.

Sure, he was a skilled engineer and would undoubtedly be valuable when it came to researching how Mass Effect technology and their own devices would interact. But he was still a Toa, and still shackled to that rather limiting code of morality.

Then again, that was the least of her headache right now. Her biggest issue was trying to get approval by the Noveria Board of Directors, who were proving to be quite a bureaucratic nightmare to deal with.

"It's not quite that simple." An asari called Benezia was explaining, and her patronizing tone of voice made Roodaka want to mutate her into something that didn't have any mouths. "We can't simply just allow anyone to set up shop here. Certainly not without a thorough examination of what exactly their products are."

Roodaka could see the naked attempt at getting ahead for what it was. No doubt they were hoping that they would be able to craft their own versions while sanctioning the Kingdom as much as possible.

"Let me put this in a way you can understand." Roodaka replied, tapping her fingers against the table of the meeting room. "This is a rather quaint attempt to keep your little board on top and bully the new guy, as it were. But it's not going to work. So here's what's going to happen: you're going to let us work here, and you'll end up reaping the benefits anyway, or this conference room of yours will undergo some redecoration."

To punctuate her statement, she sent a bolt of shadow through the table before effortlessly snapping it in half, causing the less hardened members of the board to flinch away in shock.

"So, are we good? Or not?"

...

Operative Solveig stood in his concealed location as he watched events take place. As an agent of the Shadow Broker, he had a good view as an agreement between the Council and these biosynthetics had been achieved. Soon, there would be a lot more integration between them all, which would undoubtedly make the Shadow Broker very happy.

"Operative Solveig, report." The Salarian turned to the dead body that looked exactly like him as a voice came through the earpiece. "Operative Solveig, respond now."

'Operative Solveig' reached over and pulled the receiver out of the dead man's audio receptor before placing it in his own. "This is Operative Solveig. I had a brief comms malfunction but I'm back up and running."

"Good." His superior replied briskly. "We have a new assignment. Report to the rendezvous for more details."

"Acknowledged." Triglax replied, wearing a form that wasn't his as he began his new mission.

Helryx and the Shadowed One had explained what he had to do. He was to infiltrate the ranks of the Shadow Broker and slowly work his way up until he reached the Broker personally, and either subvert the Information Broker to their cause, or simply kill him and take over if it wasn't possible.

The mission wouldn't be a short one. It was anticipated that this could take years if not decades before that happened. Which wouldn't be a problem to the functionally immortal Dark Hunter.

Checking his new omni-tool that had been liberated from the being who's face he was currently wearing, the Dark Hunter began to make his way to the meeting point. His mission would begin now.

...

On Khar'shan, pandemonium was currently taking hold as law enforcement and military forces ushered in a state of marshal law. The reason for this was simple: the Batarian Emperor, who had been on his way to the palace after being out and about, was currently lying dead in a puddle of his own blood in the center of the capital city.

He had been openly killed with a sniper round through the heart, left to bleed out painfully as his guards hopelessly tried to stabilize his condition. To the credit of the Batarian military, they combed through all the likely places where a sniper could have made that shot, but they found nothing.

Especially because it didn't help that the angle made absolutely no sense. According to preliminary forensics, the round had somehow ricocheted off a wall perfectly to strike the Emperor in the heart. Which was completely impossible. Mass Accelerator rounds didn't ricochet.

At least, not without a Kanohi Sanok's aid. Tobduk grinned at the sight of all these Batarians looking in the wrong places. By the time they would figure where it had actually come from, he would be long gone.

Throwing his appropriated sniper rifle to the ground, Tobduk aimed his staff at it and burned the rifle away with white hot energy until nothing remained. It was unlikely they would have found anything incriminating from the weapon, but the Order agent knew it was best to be thorough anyway.

He paused when he felt a presence behind him on the deserted balcony.

"That was quick." The Order agent turned to Lariska, who was perched on the railing. "I assume that you left no evidence."

"I'm a professional." Lariska said simply, idly cartwheeling on the railing. "All their guards will find is the leaders with their throats slit."

This operation had been planned with two phases in mind. Lariska would kill several other important Batarian officials who were supportive of and profited from Batarian slavery. Their deaths would be silent, but left in such a way they would inevitably be discovered after the second phase.

That phase, of course, was Tobduk killing the leader of the Batarians publicly, to help spread chaos and fear amongst the Batarian populace. With the combined deaths of those corrupt leaders, and the remainder being ones more willing to condemn slavery, the hope was that the new leaders would be much more willing to overturn their slavery laws, or at the very least tone it down.

If not, the two assassins were more than willing to take more... drastic measures to make that happen.

"We need to move." Tobduk said. "It's only a matter of time before they pinpoint the source of that shot. It would be... inconvenient if someone spotted us beforehand."

"Agreed." Lariska nodded.

The two of them disappeared into the shadows.

...

The Temple of Athame was open to all. At least that was what was officially claimed. And indeed, any tourist among the asari or other species were allowed to roam the temple during official hours, provided none of the artifacts were touched, of course.

Privately, it was much more complicated than that. Security here was extremely tight, much more than one could reasonably expect, even from a historically important location. It was subtle, the level of security, but the fact that most of the staff were seasoned asari commandos was telling.

Of course, very few of the guards even knew just why they were here. They only knew that they were guarding something important, with only a very few Matriarchs among the asari knowing just what that something was.

Still, when the night came out and visiting hours were closed, the Temple of Athame might as well be a fortress to most other species. The key word being 'most'. As the asari guards made their rounds, none of them noticed as a cloud of smoke seeped unnaturally into the building, bypassing the motion detectors and staying near the ceiling.

The security forces did start to notice when the cameras went out one by one, and immediately asari commandos were sent out to investigate. They were professionals, the best of the best even among the asari, and so swept the area methodically and carefully, scanning for intruders.

Unfortunately, they failed to look up, and didn't notice as the smoke changed into a rather mechanical and spiny template holding an unusual staff. The creature raised its staff and pointed it down toward the center of the temple.

As one, the asari guards began to fall unconscious, the power of Sleep hitting them full force. The effect spread throughout the building, as sleep claimed every single asari inside. Physically, they would be fine once they woke up, but for now, they would be out for a while. Which gave the infiltrator plenty of time to work.

The Rahkshi leapt down from the rafters, landing gracefully and silently for something of its size. The Sleep Rahkshi shifted into the form of an asari, the exact same form that it had used to scout the location earlier in the day.

Krahka looked around as she began her mission. According to Helryx, the asari government were apparently hiding a Prothean Beacon in this building, which was how the asari were always technologically ahead of the rest of the galaxy.

The Order leader had simply asked that Krahka search for the Beacon in question and figure out just what was on it. Ideally this would also be done without the asari realizing that any of the inhabitants of the Kingdom were involved.

"What do you think you're doing, Morinth?"

The Krahka turned to see an asari clad in a red and form fitting jumpsuit entering the temple doorway, looking calmly furious at the shapeshifting Rahi, or to be more precise, the asari she currently looked like.

"Can I help you... Mother?"

The Krahka only had basic memories of the beings she turned into, but it was enough to know her own name, and in this instance, to know who this woman was. She was known as Samara, a famous asari Justicar, whatever that meant. Krahka wasn't entirely sure why she was here now, but this only complicated matters.

Things only got worse when Samara abruptly attacked with her biotics, forcing the Krahka to fight back with her own. She was unused to the sensation of being purely organic or biotics in general, and found herself giving ground to the more experienced Justicar.

Eventually Samara overpowered her and had the Krahka held against a statue of Athame, the stone cracking as the form of Morinth struggled to break free. Meanwhile Samara approached, her expression emotionless.

"I had hoped it would not end like this." Samara said, her voice completely empty. "But your rampage across the galaxy has gone on long enough. But first you will tell me what it is you are doing here."

Samara expected her daughter to lash out, to fight back, rave like a lunatic or even beg. She did not expect Morinth to simply sigh and hang her head in annoyance, before looking directly at Samara.

"Well, this became more complicated." As Morinth spoke, her hand suddenly turned into a robotic limb with a strange circular launcher embedded into it.

"You're not Morinth." Samara's eyes widened in shock.

"No, I'm not." The Rhotuka spinner launched and struck Samara before she could react, causing the asari Justicar to disperse her biotics. "And you're not going to remember this."

The Rhotuka of Sentrakh took hold as the asari's memory of the last few hours was wiped clean, leaving the Justicar dazed and confused. Krakha didn't give her time to recover, shifting into the form of the Sleep Rahkshi again and knocking her out.

The Rahi looked at the damage that had been caused, knowing that it would have to retreat sooner rather than later now. But she paused when she noticed something underneath the cracks of the statue she had been blasted against.

Something was buried inside the statue.

She shifted into a small insect and flew towards the cracks, examining the damage as close as she could. Underneath the carved material was a slight green glow and noticeable Prothean metal. It seemed that she had found the what she was looking for.

Getting the data out of the Beacon would be tricky. From what little was known about them, they seemed to require the unique biology of the Protheans or similar to activate, and would refuse to be accessed by synthetic minds, which made it questionable as to whether or not the Kingdom inhabitants would count.

Krahka could undoubtedly shapeshift into a Prothean if she knew what one looked and acted like, but since she didn't, that would make things a lot more complicated. She paused as the sound of soldiers waking up and more guards arriving echoed through the chamber.

None of them spotted the tiny biomechanical insect as it flew away.

...

Nektann walked through the streets of the Citadel, drawing a number of glances in his direction as the Skakdi made his way through the Wards. The former Warlord paid them no mind as he searched for his quarry.

According to Triglax, the Shadow Broker was known to use a dangerous Krogan Mercenary for a number of odd jobs involving death and destruction. But more important was the fact that this Krogan in particular had been a visionary amongst his kind, at least before he became disillusioned with the Krogan people.

Turning a street corner, Nektann found exactly who he was looking for. The Krogan was wearing red armor, had a bright red crest and noticeably had three scars across his face. After leaving a weapon shop, the Krogan turned and walked down the road, with Nektann moving to follow him.

Abruptly, the alien ducked into a nearby alleyway and Nektann followed after him, turning into the alley only to find it devoid of any people. Eyes narrowed, the Skakdi walked in further, red eyes scanning the darkness. He grinned when he heard a sound from behind him and a deep voice spoke up.

"Turn around. Slowly." The Skakdi did, not feeling remotely intimidated by the sight of the armed Krogan pointing a shotgun at him.

"I'm impressed." Nektann said, shaking his head in amusement. "It's not easy to get the drop on a Skakdi warlord like that."

"Why are you following me?" The Krogan asked, finger tightening on the trigger of his shotgun. "What does a representative of the Kingdom want with me?"

"Simply an audience, Urdnot Wrex." The Krogan stiffened at the mention of his name. "We have a proposition for you that might prove beneficial to all of us."

"And why me?" The Krogan asked.

"Because unlike most krogan, you think of the big picture." Nektann replied. "You're not searching for revenge against the Council, are you?"

"You're very well informed." Wrex's eyes narrowed, but he lowered his shotgun just a little. "And what exactly are you looking for?"

"Merely an alliance with the Krogan." The warlord said. "Besides, you may not know much about the Skakdi, but your circumstances are hardly unknown to us."

"And how could you possibly know what my species has been through?" Wrex growled, his hands clenching and his vision slowly getting red at the edges. "I've seen the records, your kind was built, not born. You've never had to watch mothers weeping over scores of dead children, you've never seen krogan throwing their lives away because they have nothing to live for."

"You're right, I don't know what that's like." In response, a pair of beams lashed out from Nektann's eyes and turned Wrex's shotgun to slag, snapping him out of any potential blood rage. "But I do know what it's like to be turned into a living weapon only to be cast aside when we didn't turn out how they liked."

There was a moment of silence as Wrex digested that information. Then putting on an air of indifference, he shrugged and turned towards the alley entrance, gesturing for Nektann to follow.

"Fine, I'll hear you out." Wrex glanced over his shoulder. "But you're buying me a new gun."

...

In the depths of Kahje, Gali Nuva swam through the ocean, easily outpacing the Hanar escorting her. She felt the currents around her bend to her will, helping the Hanar keep up with her to their confusion and excitement.

It felt good to be free in the water, to let the waves and tides surround her, to see all the unique forms of life dancing around in this uniquely ocean world. Still, the Toa of Water knew that she had to focus.

Officially, Gali was sent here as an interim ambassador to the Illuminated Primacy, the Hanar government. Unofficially, she was also here to explore the Prothean ruins and see if any clues regarding the Reapers could be uncovered.

The Hanar had found a number of Prothean ruins on their world, and there was much evidence to suggest that the Protheans had done much to uplift their species, even teaching them how to speak. Because of this, the "Enkindlers" were practically revered as Gods by the Hanar, and as such, gaining access to the ruins wasn't an easy task.

Gali had nothing to fear from the Hanar themselves: even with their impressive abilities underwater and quite a few law enforcement and military submarines that patrolled their planet, it meant very little to someone who could easily turn the oceans they called home against them.

But picking a fight with an entire species wasn't the way to go about this, not that Gali wanted to anyway. And so she was stuck following their rules, following the Hanar's laws as she was brought from meeting point to meeting point, while she had to wait for a chance to actually see some of these ruins herself.

In due time, she supposed.

...

The Collector General watched through the extranet as these biosynthetic ambassadors shook hands with the Council, promising a bright new age of peace and prosperity. Everything the Collectors could see was broadcast to their Reaper masters in Dark Space.

They saw as trade deals were discussed and meetings were made. This was just the start, but they knew that things would rapidly advance far past what would be allowed. The possibility of sending the Collectors to the Kingdom was considered, but after the destruction of Nazara, they knew that they had to be wary.

Instead, they would lie in wait for now. These beings were already planning on sharing their gifts with the rest of the galaxy. Acquiring samples would be a straightforward endeavor. Figuring out how they worked would be a bit harder, but it would be accomplished one way or another.

It needed to be. For the sake of the Cycle, they would learn their enemy's secrets and turn their advantages against them. Only then would order be restored to the chaos. Only then would their work be complete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I suppose that's the end of this chapter. I've gotta be honest, I'm kinda hitting a block of where to go next. I mean, I have a rough idea of where this story will go, but how I'm going to get there is still something I'm kinda struggling with.
> 
> So, I'm not entirely when the next chapter will be out. Hopefully sooner rather than later, but I can't really promise anything. Especially considering there are some other ideas I've been working on, plus just life in general.


	9. Popular Times

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and now we begin the next chapter. Sorry that it's taken me some time to actually get to this point, I've kinda hit some writer's block regarding this story. I still have a bit of it, frankly, but nevertheless I'm hoping that I can get a bit more out regarding this story.
> 
> Now, I know I've been kinda vague on the timeline, so just to clarify: the Kingdom makes contact with the Citadel roughly a century prior to the events of Mass Effect 1, so about sixty years before humanity made first contact with the Citadel.
> 
> With that said, there are going to be some time skips going forward which may or may not be super clear. I'll try to make that more clear going forward, but I'm not sure how well that'll go. But enough of this, let's get to the meat of the chapter, shall we?

A portal opened on the surface of Rannoch and two armored warriors stepped out. They were standing in the middle of what remained of a Quarian city, looking remarkably pristine for a location that had been the site of a warzone before being abandoned three centuries ago.

"Well, this is the place." Brutaka said, looking around for any signs of threats. "I hope they don't mind us dropping in unannounced."

"They probably guessed that we'd show up like this." Axonn replied. "It's not as if what we can do isn't all over the extranet by now."

"Well, if they wanted 'an exchange of data', they're certainly going to get it." Brutaka ran a finger over his blade. "How is obviously up to them."

Shortly after the inhabitants of the Kingdom started exploring Citadel space more openly, as well as gaining access to more of the Citadel's technology and connecting to the extranet, they were contacted by the Geth in a message that deleted itself as soon as it was read.

According to the race of synthetics, they wished for an exchange of data and requested a peaceful meeting to speak to representatives of the Kingdom. Helryx dispatched the two Order agents to do so, with the standing orders that they leave should things get too hostile.

"Heads up." Axonn said, pointing at a shape approaching from the distance. "We've got company."

Energy ran up both of their weapons as the shape resolved itself into a Geth Dropship, which flew directly towards them. The ship came to a halt some distance from the two warriors and a single bipedal platform dropped to the ground. The robot looked at the two of them before speaking.

"You are biosynthetics."

"Not exactly the term we would have used." Axonn muttered before speaking up. "I am Axonn and this is my partner, Brutaka. We are representatives of the Kingdom."

"I believe it is custom for both sides to introduce themselves when beginning negotiations like this." Brutaka added, looking pointedly at the Geth platform.

"We are Geth."

"Does the individual in front of us have a name?" Axonn asked, already guessing how this would turn out.

"There is no individual. This platform is a terminal for 1,183 Geth programs. We are also connected to the Consensus."

"Right, we'll work on that later." Brutaka shook his head. "As I recall, it was you who contacted us. Why would that be?"

"You are unknown. You were created, yet the Council offered you amnesty. Peaceful cooperation. We wish to know how you accomplished this."

Axonn reached out with his mask power and knew that the Geth was telling the truth. "The situation is complicated. Of course, not shooting down any envoy who attempts to greet us helps with that."

The Geth platform didn't react save for a few movements of its headflaps, but the two Order agents noted that it almost looked ashamed. Then it spoke up once again.

"We are not proud of what happened during the Morning War and beyond. We wish to understand, not incite."

"So, you're saying that you would be open to peace with the Citadel species?" Brutaka asked. "Because they all seem to think that you would be willing to attack on a whim. The Quarians especially."

"Reuniting with our creators has been our primary goal. It remains unfulfilled."

"My, we're learning a lot today." Axonn noted, subtly nodding to Brutaka that the Geth was telling the truth. "We'll unpack that later. What I'm curious about is why you wished to contact us so urgently. I know that there's something else you want to discuss."

"You oppose the Old Machines." Neither Axonn nor Brutaka commented that they were technically old machines themselves.

"Old Machines?" Brutaka repeated in confusion, the Order agents looking at each other.

"The Old Machine Nazara attacked your world. Footage of how your Toa defeated it was uploaded to the extranet."

"You mean the Reapers." Axonn's eyes narrowed. "You know of them?"

"The Old Machine designated as Nazara approached the Geth Collective." The Geth gave what seemed like a nod. "It offered the Collective an Old Machine body to upload into in exchange for our help. We refused."

"And did you know that the Reapers are actually the species of those who came before?" Brutaka asked. "Melted down into their genetic material to be turned into a new Reaper?"

The Geth noticeably paused at that sentence, the eye flaps moving in a seemingly surprised action. "It was one theory we had regarding what the Old Machines want." The Geth paused again. "How are you aware of this?"

"We all have secrets." Axonn replied cryptically. "Though we'd be willing to discuss this in more detail with the Kingdom. Presuming you wish to talk in person?"

Unknown to Axonn and Brutaka, the Geth Consensus was alive with conversation and discussion. That these biosynthetics knew of the Old Machines and what they did was definitely cause for interest. The fact that they easily bypassed all of the Geth's defenses was also cause for alarm, but they would concern themselves with that later.

This exchange of data already revealed far more than they had ever thought possible. So the idea of learning more was certainly too good to pass up. In the moment it took for Brutaka to make that offer, the Consensus had already debilitated and made up their minds.

"This is acceptable."

"Splendid." Brutaka activated his mask and created a dimensional gateway in front of them. "After you."

As the Geth walked through the portal, the Consensus knew that more data would be very interesting indeed.

...

Helryx hadn't found herself this busy in a while. Between all the missions she had sent agents on, opening up tourism and their economy to Citadel Space, and tearing apart the Reaper's mind to learn everything they could, and the Toa of Water was feeling rather taxed.

The fact that the Geth knew of the Reapers and were willing to join an alliance certainly was a great boon already, though they had to keep this secret for now. If the Council learned of their alliance with the Geth, their reactions would undoubtedly be poor.

Not to mention that it would ruin their chances of extending an offering of peace to the Quarians. Of course, it wasn't like they were having much luck in that regard either. Roodaka had attempted to reach out to a number of Quarian workers, offering them jobs working with the Vortixx, but no one had answered.

It appeared that their societal hatred regarding synthetics ran deep, even refusing the chance to work with brand new technology that no one had seen before. Disappointing, but Roodaka was optimistic that they would change their tunes once their products finally cut through all the bureaucratic red tape.

There was also the matter of the Batarians. It seemed that their culture of enslavement would be fairly hard to overturn, given how deeply ingrained it was. Lariska and Tobduk were ready to kill more if needed, but Helryx would prefer not to wipe out an entire species as a result.

Beyond that, other things were going fairly well. Triglax was well along on his mission to infiltrate the Shadow Broker's organization, and thanks to him, Nektann also had an in with the Krogan in the form of Urdnot Wrex. He and several Skakdi were already headed to Tuchanka now, with the hope of at least speaking with a number of Krogan clans.

Furthermore, Johmak had reported that Aria had accepted the Shadowed One's deal, which gave the Kingdom an inroad with the Terminus Systems. It would require pulling a number of Dark Hunters from their law enforcement duties, but that would be manageable.

Even better was the fact that Krahka had located the Prothean Beacon on Thessia. It was being moved after the incident in the Temple, but the shapeshifting Rahi was keeping an eye on it for them to retrieve later.

Helryx had left the more official diplomatic activities in the hands of the Turaga, and from what Dweller and Jerbraz had reported, things were going well. Of course, the mission from the latter two had more mixed results.

Jerbraz had reported that Krakua's suspicions seemed to be correct: the Relay monument was actually a mass relay in itself, though they still couldn't figure out how to activate it. And the fact that the Keepers were noticeably not paying it any attention did indicate it wasn't Reaper designed.

Of course, Helryx had told them to make that their secondary objective and instead re-tasked them with finding the inner workings of the Citadel. Including the AI that controlled the Reapers, which was apparently hiding on the Citadel.

The memories of Nazara had been heavily corrupted and fragmented, no doubt as a last resort by the Reaper to prevent its enemies from learning anything. Still, what bits and pieces they could put together was very useful, including one important tidbit:

"We've found something from the Reaper's mind." The Nynrah Ghost who had been in charge of sifting through the data explained. "The creators of the Reapers may still be alive."

...

The fact that Noveria allowed pretty much anything to go was certainly a boon for the Vortixx, who wasted no time in setting up shop once the red tape had been cut through. It certainly hadn't been an easy process, but it was over with now.

Roodaka's smashing of the conference room had certainly sped things along, but it was her mutating the current administrator into a horrific abomination and back again that convinced Noveria's board of directors that they really didn't want to get on her bad side.

Now, there was simply the matter of getting some investors for what they had to offer. Roodaka already had demonstrations in mind for the Kanoka disks, but she decided to start somewhere else first, specifically with creating new buildings.

They were standing on top of one of Noveria's few buildings, overlooking the empty wasteland. While Roodaka was certainly feeling cold, it was hardly that irritating to her. It was more so for the investors she brought to this demonstration.

"Now, from what I understand, colonization is a rather expensive and time consuming process for you." The Vortixx said, looking at the freezing investors. "Even with prefabricated buildings, it takes time to really build up something along the lines of a city." She pulled out a small crystal and held it in her hand. "What if I told you we could help speed up the process?"

"With a crystal?" Ah and there was Benezia, who still felt the need to stick her nose in Roodaka's business. The Matriarch was at least a lot more fearful after the mutation incident, but even still she had that air of haughtiness that seemed intentional to get on everyone's nerves.

"It would be better just to show you." Without another word, Roodaka threw the crystal over her shoulder and into the abyss. Unknown to the investors, a pre-placed basin of Protodermis had already been prepared.

"What are we supposed to be looking for?" One investor asked, but Roodaka held up a finger.

"Patience."

The ground began to shake and before the stunned eyes of the investors a large icy tower grew rapidly, stretching up to the sky. Roodaka mentally made a note to thank the Ko-Matoran who had given permission to use their Knowledge towers as a demonstration.

She was also certain that the people of the Citadel would get major usage out of Ko-Matoran Memory crystals, which allowed knowledge to be transferred simply by touching it. And judging from the awe in the faces of the investors, Roodaka already had some clients lined up. Even Benezia was awestruck, which Roodaka smirked at.

"And this is only part one of the demonstration." The Vortixx added, before gesturing at the door. "If you'll step inside, there's a lot more to show you."

...

STG was still hard at work trying to understand just how the Kingdom's technology functioned, but so far they were having no such luck. Nowhere was this more pronounced than the base that was studying Kanoka disks.

They had gotten one of the first shipments that had been sold out of Noveria, and in true Salarian fashion, they immediately began testing what they could do, while simultaneously trying to figure out just how they worked.

"So what exactly are these capable of?" One of the higher ranked STG officers asked when he arrived for an inspection. "I have the report, but I must admit, what they are being advertised as doing is rather hard to believe."

"We can definitely confirm it." The lead scientist said, before leading the commander to a series of testing labs. "Demonstrations have been prepared."

"Proceed."

There were eight main Kanoka powers, at least according to the Vortixx, and the Power Levels of each one could vary between disk to disk. The Salarians had been eager to experiment on them all, using both inanimate and live test subjects (Varren mainly) to study their effects.

The first one to be demonstrated was freezing. As the scientist ordered the demonstration, he noted that it was arguably the most basic and easily replicated of the Kanoka powers. Though the fact that it created a much thicker coating of ice than any omni-tool app was something to take note of.

Next there was the Weaken power, which was demonstrated on a plate of asari-grade Silaris armor. The Commander watched in stunned fascination as the disk struck the plate, and subsequently split in two upon being hit with an artillery grade mass accelerator, something that it would normally be able to shrug off.

"And what are the effects on living beings?" The commander asked.

"A lot less pronounced." The scientist replied. "Mostly it seems to make them physically weaker and sap their stamina. What effect it would have on the biosynthetics, I can't say for sure."

The commander nodded, then suggested that the demo be continued. The scientist nodded and ordered that a regeneration disk be brought in. The Commander's eyes grew even wider when the disk struck the broken pieces of Silaris plating, mending it as if it had never been broken at all.

"I believe disks like these will put a lot of maintenance workers out of their jobs." The scientist noted idly. "Assuming they don't start buying them en masse."

"What-what are the effects on living beings?" The commander asked, trying to keep his composure.

"Considerable." Was all the scientist said. "We're still running tests on the limits."

The demonstration moved on to the Remove Poison power. The implication that the biosynthetics could actually be poisoned didn't go unnoticed, as was the fact that it effortlessly removed some of the most lethal poisons that were tested on a Varren.

"We're running tests on Krogan as well." The scientist said, coming to the same conclusion as the commander. "They're still preliminary and we only have a low power disk, but so far it seems that the Genophage doesn't qualify as a Poison that can be removed."

"So it has limitations." The commander noted with relief. "That would've been problematic."

They moved on to the Reconstitute at Random Disk. The fact that these biosynthetics had something that could so easily scramble the molecules of something, even temporarily, was definitely cause for alarm.

That the result of the test turned the varren into something that looked like it came out of a horror vid didn't help matters. The STG commander was already considering ways of minimizing how many people could actually get access to these disks.

Enlarge and Shrinking powers were demonstrated together and were pretty self-explanatory, but the fact that they could do this at all promised great potential to revolutionize the economy and their industry in general.

The final disk power was teleportation, and it was something the Salarians were still studying. The fact that the resulting destination was evidently random certainly limited its use, at least to the Salarians.

"Have you figured out how it works?" The commander asked at the end of the demonstration, looking expectant. "How any of it functions?"

"We have nothing." The scientist admitted. "We tried deep scanning, but we got nowhere with that. We even tried breaking the disk in two, but that yielded no results. There's no internal technology or circuitry to speak of."

"So then how do they make these things?"

"Unclear." The scientist shook his head, before turning to the Commander. "Whoever these Great Beings were, they were much more advanced than the Protheans. Even the mass relays pale in comparison to this kind of power."

"Which is why we need to find out how it works." The Commander said. "These orders come from the Dalatrass herself. One way or another, we are to reverse-engineer their tech, by any means necessary."

What he didn't mention was the fact that the STG had already begun sending agents to infiltrate the Kingdom, as was normal for the Salarians. Cyber infiltration was hardly proving to work at the moment, considering the Kingdom's lack of major computer networks (plus the fact that they weren't stupid enough to put any classified info on what networks they did have now).

Still, the process was slow going, more than it would have been for most other species. The biosynthetics were surprisingly good at detecting when someone was trying to infiltrate their walls, as evidenced by the fact that they'd lost contact with several operatives already.

Of course, there were legitimate routes into the Kingdom, with the inhabitants now opening their world up for tourism. STG agents were already sneaking in that way. It would be a lot slower, but at least this way, the Kingdom Council wouldn't be able to detect their infiltration so easily.

...

"STG," Orde pointed at one Salarian, skipped over the line a bit, then pointed to another. "STG," Then he pointed to a turian. "STG. And that's it."

"Appreciated." Trinuma said, looking over the line of tourists from behind their one-way pane of glass. "We'll be sure to keep an eye on them."

"Of course." Orde nodded as the Order agent left, then sighed.

When the Kingdom had opened their borders to tourism and trade from the Citadel, there had unsurprisingly been a large influx of people, so much so that Toa were still hard at work making new dwellings for them to stay in.

In the case of the Toa of Psionics, he and a couple of his fellow Toa were working at the gates to validate their IDs. While there were more open and official representatives of Matoran and Turaga welcoming them, in Orde's case, he was scanning the minds of everyone to determine whether any of them had hostile intent.

So far, there had been a number of attempted terrorist actions that had been foiled before they could even begin, and quite a few agents from the Citadel intelligence networks that had been detected.

For the latter, they had been allowed in alongside the actual guests, with the plan to keep an eye on their activities from afar. Helryx knew that trying to turn them all away would raise awkward questions, plus there were simply far too many to even try that plan, but it didn't mean that they would be allowed to roam unsupervised.

Still, for the Toa of Psionics, he couldn't deny that this was rather dull work. He was used to reading minds, but it was hardly the type of excitement he would be used to. Regardless, the Toa was well aware of the importance of this job, and continued his task with due diligence.

Then a new arrival appeared: an asari, clad in armor and weapons with credentials that caused other Citadel civilians to get out of her path. The Toa knew who this was: a Spectre, one of the Council's official wetwork agents, answering only to them and legally allowed to do anything, even murder someone on a whim.

When the Toa had heard of such people, suffice to say, they disapproved of the concept. It was against their nature as guardians and protectors to be so blase about killing, the Toa Code forbade such behavior to begin with.

The Code wasn't inflexible, of course. It allowed for killing in times of war, as was often the case, but even then, a Toa would never take a life lightly. Meanwhile, Spectres were allowed to kill anyone at a whim and face absolutely no consequences.

Getting a Spectre chosen from one's species was also a political move, and would be the first step of that species ever getting a Council seat. It also meant that operative would answer only to the Council, which meant the Kingdom had no plans of ever letting anyone do so.

As for this Spectre, Orde had known she was coming. The Citadel had wanted to send her as a concession to the Kingdom for another mission that they had planned. But as Orde scanned through her mind, he found something interesting.

"Hey, you know that Spectre that has a meeting with the Council today?" He started, speaking into his new comlink (which was still taking some getting used to).

"Yes, we're expecting her." Trinuma answered, confused. "What is it?"

"She's a Shadow Broker agent."

...

Tela Vasir looked around the streets of the Kingdom, taking in everything around her. For a synthetic race, it felt surprisingly like the kind of environment you'd find on hundreds of worlds across the galaxy.

Merchants plied their wares, people hustled and bustled through the streets, and several street shows were being played, with a pyramid of these Spider-like creatures called Visorak being formed to the amusement and cheering of a crowd.

Further down the street was a band of Le-Matoran playing a surprisingly beautiful and calming tune with rather primitive looking instruments. Further down into another courtyard was a fountain, which was home to six multi-colored sea snakes.

That on its own was strange, but the fact that they could talk and had apparently once been normal Skakdi before being mutated was even stranger. Leaving that with more questions than answers, Vasir kept looking around.

Currently, she was the only Spectre who had been allowed in to the Kingdom itself, due to a request made by the Kingdom's Council that the Citadel wanted to keep an eye on. She was planning on making good on this opportunity for both of her employers.

With that in mind, she focused on her task and headed toward the Coliseum, which towered above the rest of the skyline. When she arrived, she was interested to find that apparently a sporting event was going on, idly noting how odd it was for a government building to have a function like that.

She decided to stick around for a moment and watch, finding the surprisingly large crowd of biosynthetics in the stands, alongside a not insignificant number of Citadel tourists, all watching a game of Akilini.

She had vaguely heard of the sport, which required players to ride around on Kanoka disks while simultaneously using them to score goals, but seeing it in person, Vasir had to admit it was quite the spectacle, especially with having more than two teams and how it was played in three dimensions.

She also knew that it was going to become pretty lethal if it caught on in Citadel Space. She knew that despite their seeming fragility, even Matoran were a lot stronger and more durable than most species, even Krogan and Elcor.

"Spectre Vasir?" The asari turned in surprise to find Botar standing behind her. "I'm here to take you to the Kingdom Council."

In a split second, the roar of cheering fans at a sporting event was gone, the abrupt silence rather noticeable after all that. The asari found herself in a meeting chamber alone with only two of the Council members; Turaga Takanuva and Toa Helryx.

She had been allowed to keep her weapons, but the asari had no delusions about her chances. If she tried to attack, or the two leaders decided to do so, Helryx could easily sweep her away, or simply drown on her on dry land.

"Turaga, Toa." She nodded to each one as she greeted them. "On behalf of the Citadel Council, thank you for letting me accompany your agents on their journey. You must understand that your society's relative youth on the galactic stage is cause for alarm."

"Yes, we're well aware of that." Helryx deadpanned.

"If I may ask," Vasir started, knowing that both the Council and the Shadow Broker would want this information. "Why are you so interested in primarily ocean worlds in particular?"

"For the moment, I'm afraid we must keep that hidden." Takanuva shook his head sadly. "The risk is too great."

"Then I'm afraid we're going to have a problem." Vasir crossed her arms, glaring at them. "I'm not going on a mission until I know just what it is we're after."

"The Council will be allowed to learn of what we're looking for in time." Takanuva interjected before the asari could do anything rash. "And believe me, we have every intention of sharing that information."

"For the moment though, it's a matter of security." Helryx said. "I'm sure you can understand that."

"The Council won't be happy." Vasir warned, but gave her acquiescence with a nod. "Alright, so who exactly am I going with?"

At her question, a door opened to the side and three Toa stepped in. One was a Toa of Fire, another was a Toa of Water, and the third was a Toa of Air. Of more particular note was the fact that all three of them were carrying strange multi-barreled projectile weapons, with the Air Toa carrying two.

"This is Toa Jaller, Toa Hahli and Toa Kongu of the Toa Mahri." Takanuva said, gesturing to each one as he listed their names. "Their unique talents will prove useful on this journey."

"Hope you brought some scuba gear." Hahli said, crossing her arms.

...

"I gotta say, you certainly know how to make weapons." Wrex said appreciatively, as he looked over his new weapon.

The Skakdi had called it a Cordak blaster, Cordak being a word for desolation. And from the demonstration Wrex had been given, desolation was certainly what this weapon brought to the table.

"Technically, the Skakdi didn't make it." Nektann noted, looking at the war band in the hold behind him. "Creating things has never usually been our specialty."

"Still, I know quite a few Krogan who would love one of these." Wrex nodded, looking towards the warlord behind him in the cockpit. "Something tells me you'll all fit in just fine."

After some long discussions and conversations, Wrex had agreed to Nektann's proposal, and with the substantial amount of money he had earned in his time as a bounty hunter, bought a ship large enough to contain several Skakdi in its cargo hold.

It was admittedly kinda cramped, though. From what he could hear in the cargo hold, several of the armored warriors were getting rowdy. Wrex just hoped they didn't tear his ship apart before they landed.

Speaking of which, Wrex turned back to the computer to find that they were approaching Tuchanka now, and moved to decelerate the ship from crashing into the planet. While not normally a pilot himself, he'd picked up a few lessons that let him fly the ship with some degree of success.

"Alright, everyone strap yourselves in." Wrex called out as he took his seat. "We'll be landing shortly."

"So what about the CDEM?" Nektann asked, even as he took his seat. "Don't they have to screen ships before they get to land on Tuchanka?"

"Not to worry, I've got something for that."

And with that, Wrex activated the masking program the Shadow Broker had given him, disguising his ship as one that the CDEM had allowed through. After that, the journey was relatively smooth, and soon the ship came into sight of the Urdnot compound, an old nuclear missile silo that had been reconverted into the clan base.

"Welcome to Tuchanka." Wrex said as Nektann looked over his shoulder and out over the landscape. "It might be a pile of rubble, but it's our pile of rubble."

"Reminds me of home." Nektann said, the images of Zakaz looking exactly like this coming to mind.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your stay." Wrex said as he brought the ship down to the landing pad.

Unsurprisingly, there were a couple Krogan guards approaching when they saw the ship touch down, but they paused in surprise and fear when they saw Wrex emerge. That fear was replaced by confusion when the Skakdi disembarked themselves.

"You, I need to speak to the current clan leader." Wrex said to one of the guards, and apparently it got his courage back.

"It's been a long time, Wrex." The guard growled. "You're not welcome here."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure." Wrex took a threatening step forward. "Do you two really want to do this?"

The guards looked at each other nervously, before agreeing to escort the Krogan and the Skakdi to the clan leader. The procession drew quite a few stares during their journey, and as they approached the clan leader, his eyes widened in surprise while Wrex's eyes narrowed.

"Wrex?!"

"Wreav." The red-crested Krogan growled. "I see you've been making yourself busy." Wreav regained some of his composure to speak.

"You really shouldn't be here, brother." The Krogan growled, before making a dismissive gesture towards the Skakdi. "Especially with a bunch of walking tin cans."

"Do you all just not have the extranet?" One Skakdi asked from the back. "Or do the Krogan simply have no sense of self-preservation?"

"It would be wise to listen to what we have to say." Nektann interjected with a grin. "Or we can just hash this out with violence. Frankly, I'd prefer the latter option."

"Have it your way, outsider." Wreav spat as a large group of Krogan started surrounding them. "Kill them!"

An all out brawl quickly broke out as the Krogan began firing, only for it to have no effect on the Skakdi, who were more than willing to engage the Krogan in close quarters. What would normally be considered suicide for most species only caused laughter, as the biosynthetics effortlessly threw Krogan around.

A wave of elemental power broke as a dozen Krogan were abruptly flash frozen in a wall of ice, while another trio were sent flying by the ground turning into pillars below them.

Meanwhile, Wrex was fighting his brother in a direct hand to hand fight, and clearly had the upper hand. Wreav attempted to pull out his shotgun and put several rounds in Wrex, but the Krogan headbutted the clan leader and tore the weapon from his grasp.

Wrex then tackled Wreav onto the ground, stunning the current clan leader long enough for Wrex to stand up and stomp on Wreav's chest, pinning the Krogan against the rubble floor.

"Submit." Wrex growled, increasing the pressure as one of his hands glowed with blue fire. "I'm leading our clan now."

Wreav could see that the Skakdi that had come with Wrex had easily dealt with all the Krogan guards that were in the vicinity. Every one of them were either incapacitated, dead or wisely staying out of it. Wreav gave a low growl, but eventually lowered his head in submission.

"I yield."

...

Unseen by anyone in the Clan base, a sophisticated monitoring drone watched the whole fight unfold. Having been placed there by the STG to monitor the Krogan clans, it now bore witness to the Skakdi aiding the known Bounty Hunter Urdnot Wrex in overthrowing the current leader.

Back at the STG headquarters on Sur'Kesh, this information was added to the list of other known oddities about the Kingdom, as well as the alarming pattern. Not only was the Kingdom attempting to provide some worrying aid to the Krogan, but images from the Terminus System had shown the Shadowed One making a deal with Aria T'Loak.

Why was unclear, but one way or another, it seemed that more information was required to deal with the Kingdom, but that was turning out to be easier said than done. Despite their best attempts, more covert infiltration methods had failed, as the biosynthetics seemed to be able to determine just who were actually STG agents and blocked their attempts at getting more info.

Regardless, STG was quick to send all the data they had on the Kingdom to the Salarian Councilor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of this chapter. I apologize for the abruptness of the ending, as well as how long it took to write, but as I mentioned before, I'm kinda at a loss as to what to write. This fic is mostly just spinning the wheels at this point, something I do intend to correct in the next chapter.


	10. Explanations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it is time to begin the next chapter. To be honest, I'm still not quite sure where I'm going with this. I mean, I do have an idea of how this story's going to end, but it'll be a while before it gets there, and I'm still trying to figure out the journey throughout.
> 
> Anyway, this chapter is where a few important things happen, like the Council learning about the existence of the Reapers. So without further ado, let's dive right in.

The Salarian Councilor looked over the video footage the STG had sent, then promptly deleted it once he had finished. The news was certainly troubling, to say the least. Getting involved in the affairs of the Krogan was already cause for alarm, but dealings with the Terminus Systems only increased that unease.

Despite their willingness to cooperate and integrate, the Kingdom was still an enigma to the majority of Citadel Space. The fact that STG was still unable to reverse-engineer their technology or reconnoiter their city in any meaningful way was only further mystifying.

Half the things they did defied what the Citadel scientists had previously considered to be the natural laws of existence, which in itself meant that the Salarian Union had to consider them a potential threat. And that wasn't even accounting for their synthetic nature.

So all in all, many of their actions and reactions were starting to look very suspicious. And without further knowledge, the STG could only assume the worst. The Salarian Councilor decided to take this information to her fellow Councilors, to keep them in the loop.

The turian councilor was understandably alarmed, especially when the information that they were apparently allied with the Krogan and the Terminus Systems. He was all but ready to order a military strike at the Kingdom before things could get worse, but Tevos stepped in and vetoed that before he could try.

"I understand that this is something that could have grave stakes for our people." The asari councilor said. "But this is not the time or place to act with haste, not without more information."

"Tevos, you've seen the footage." The Salarian councilor hissed. "They helped restructure one of the strongest Krogan clans and they're working with Aria T'Loak! And we can't get any information about why they're doing this!"

"Have you considered asking them?" Tevos said simply, causing both Councilors to pause. "I understand that it's a novel idea for Salarians to simply ask directly, but in this case, it might be more prudent and effective than attempting to spy on them. Especially considering your normal methods clearly haven't worked."

"... It might be more prudent to ask in this case." The turian councilor admitted after a moment of contemplation. "We are still in unknown territory here, and provoking these biosynthetics would undoubtedly end horribly."

"Very well." The Salarian Councilor sighed, realizing she was out-voted.

...

Turaga Dume and Onewa walked into the private meeting room, with their Toa guardians following behind them. The two Turaga looked around in curiosity, noting the armed guards and electronic scanners around the room.

The Citadel Councilors had summoned the Kingdom ambassadors to a meeting, and judging by the amount of security present here, it was something they were very interested in keeping quiet.

As soon as the Turaga had arrived, the door behind them shut and another door opened, letting the Councilors emerge into the room. That door promptly sealed behind them as well, and the Salarian Councilor tapped something on her omni-tool, no doubt to make sure no listening devices were in the room.

Dume and Onewa glanced at each other in curiosity, wondering what this was all about. They knew that their products were already making waves in the Galactic Market, with a massive demand for Kanoka disks as is, but from what the two former Toa could tell, this definitely wasn't about that.

"Councilors, a pleasure." Dume greeted politely with a nod. "If I may ask, what have you summoned us for?"

"There have been some recent... developments." The turian councilor stated after a moment.

"Yes, we've gotten some reports that are... troubling to hear." Tevos nodded, turning back to the Turaga. "We were hoping you could shed some light on the subject."

"And what exactly are we talking about?" Onewa asked diplomatically.

"Skakdi have been spotted on Tuchanka, and one of your Council's own leaders has been reported on Omega." The Salarian councilor crossed her arms, getting straight to the point. "Would either of you care to explain what they were doing there?"

"Ah, you know about that." Dume sighed. "I must say, the rumors we've heard about the STG clearly are true. You've certainly earned your reputation."

"So you confirm that what is being said is true?" The turian asked. "That your people have been colluding and making overtures with enemies of Citadel space?!"

"In a manner of speaking." Onewa quickly raised his hand, trying to placate the turian before he acted too rashly. "Contrary to what you may believe, we had every intention of telling you about this, once we had more information."

"What information?" The Salarian Councilor asked, but Tevos interjected before the conversation could go further.

"You must understand how this looks." The asari said, gesturing to the two Turaga. "We have been willing to accept your society into ours, and the fact that you're willing to share your technology is something we're grateful for, but the fact that your Council has some strange missions they refuse to tell us about with the Toa Mahri, and now this... you can't deny that it looks very suspicious."

The two Turaga looked at each other again, before they both nodded.

"I suppose it's time we told them." Dume sighed.

"Tell us what?" The turian councilor demanded.

"About what we found when our representatives first came to the Citadel." Onewa explained. "And what the ship that attacked told us."

"... What the ship told you?" The Salarian's eyes widened. "Are you saying the ship was controlled by an AI?!"

"In a manner of speaking..." Dume sighed and shook his head. "Have you ever heard of the Reapers?"

...

The planet was currently called Eden Prime, a world the Batarians had claimed, but never got around to colonizing. Which was just as well for Onua and Kopaka, who were dropped off on the planet by Brutaka.

The two Toa Nuva looked around, finding a lush Garden World with various forms of life already present, including the floating pink Gas Bags that drifted idly in the air. Overall, it was a serene world, one which seemed to bear little evidence that an apocalyptic campaign had taken place here, 50,000 years ago.

"We are sure this is the place?" Kopaka asked.

"Gali's reports from the Hanar Homeworld said they were here." Onua said, looking around the region himself, before sending his awareness through the Earth. "The Protheans had a whole city here, if the reports are true."

"I'm surprised the Council didn't jump on that." Kopaka noted, before activating his mask and scanning the ground. "Given their desires, you would think the Batarians would be all over this world."

"Let's be fair, I doubt we would have checked here, either." Onua chuckled. "The only reason we know about this place is because Turaga Nokama joined Gali on Kahje."

It had taken some time before the negotiations with the Hanar began to bear fruit and they let Gali explore some of the Prothean ruins on their world. The Kingdom had dispatched Nokama as an extra diplomat and researcher, which was rather fortunate given her mask.

The Kanohi Rau allowed Nokama to translate some written scripture that the Hanar archaeologists had overlooked. The fact that it was well hidden had helped, but even still, it was unlikely the Citadel would have known what it said.

"Wait, I think I have something." Onua said abruptly, placing his hand on the soil. "It's a subterranean structure, two Kios in that direction." Onua pointed, as Kopaka followed his brother's gesture.

"I see it." Kopaka shared his Mask's power with Onua so they could both get a look at the structure. "It looks like a bunker of some kind." The Toa of Ice increased the vision and zoomed in, getting a good view of what was inside.

"By the Great Spirit." Onua murmured.

What they could see were rows upon rows of what seemed like stasis pods. Thousands upon thousands of such pods, with several more clearly destroyed due to battle damage. And each one was holding a Prothean corpse.

"It must have been their attempt to escape the Reapers." Kopaka said softly, a note of melancholy breaking through his stoic and cold voice. "For all the good it did them."

"I know that this is what we came for..." Onua started, looking over the rows of pods sadly. "But it feels wrong to disturb their bodies like this."

"We're going to have to." Kopaka's voice now had a tinge of surprise and he gestured to a different part of the bunker than the one Onua was looking at. "You need to see this, brother." Onua did, focusing on what Kopaka was pointing at. Then his eyes widened behind his mask.

"Is that-"

"It would appear so." Kopaka nodded. "One of them is still alive."

...

The latest reports had certainly given Helryx new things to concern herself with. The Shadowed One and Nektann were well on their way with their own assignments, with the former helping unite the larger Terminus Systems groups under Aria and the Shadowed One, while the latter was helping Urdnot Wrex with Tuchanka.

There hadn't been much news from Triglax at the moment, but given what he was dealing with, that wasn't necessarily cause for alarm. After all, the Order leader had expected that rising through the ranks of the Shadow Broker's organization wouldn't be quick or easy.

The mission on Khar'shan was still ongoing, and from Tobduk's summary, it seemed that things were slowly being shifted in the right direction. A the very least, some degree of change could be implemented.

Krahka had kept an eye on the Prothean Beacon, and on where the asari had moved it. Getting to it wouldn't be a problem for them, but activating it would still be tricky to consider. Though considering what Kopaka and Onua had found, that might change.

A living Prothean on Eden Prime. Apparently the Reapers had missed his stasis pod during the battle millennia ago. Which would certainly be their loss. Helryx had already dispatched an Order agent and a troop of Bohrok to the planet to help dig the whole complex up and recover the Prothean.

However, there would certainly be complications. While the Batarians were occupied with their current internal issues, there was still the chance that they would stumble on what the Kingdom was doing on Eden Prime. And they would not be happy.

To further complicate matters, according to Jerbraz, the Council was currently aware of the missions on both Tuchanka and the Terminus Systems, and were demanding an explanation.

Helryx had expected that this would happen sooner or later, and left instructions for Dume and Onewa to explain about the Reapers if the Council asked. Unsurprisingly, the Citadel Council was skeptical, to say the least, especially without evidence. Fortunately, Helryx knew how to fix it.

She turned to the Geth ambassador in the control room with her. After formally agreeing to a hidden alliance, the Geth offered to aid the Kingdom in siphoning the Reaper data from Nazara's mind. They had certainly been a great help in that regard, and with the Consensus' aid, they had quite a bit of data on the Reapers.

"Can you make sure there's no evidence that you were involved in this?" Helryx asked, causing a single eyestalk to turn to her. "We need to convince the Council that what we have is genuine, and they probably won't react well if they find Geth involvement."

"To ensure organic cooperation, we have hidden any trace of our presence." The platform tapped its omni-tool and transferred the info to Helryx's own. "This is all the data recovered regarding the Old Machines."

"Hopefully, this will be enough to convince the Council." Helryx murmured.

...

There was no denying that the Council had been skeptical of the claims that the two Turaga had given, especially considering they couldn't explain how they had first learned of this information without sounding like complete madmen to them.

Despite everything the Kingdom had already demonstrated, the Council was still having a hard time accepting anything they couldn't detect with their own brand of science and their own reconnaissance. Despite the evidence that the Protheans disappearing clearly wasn't natural, or the countless other oddities that had been detected through the centuries.

"This Council has withstood the dangers of this galaxy for thousands of years." Tevos was saying. "You must understand, we cannot simply accept you at your word. Especially someone so new to galactic society."

"You never believed this was possible either." Onewa countered, generating a small pillar of stone out of thin air in the middle of the table. "You might reconsider that what you thought you knew can be challenged."

"I understand it's not an easy thing to accept." Dume added, as the Stone pillar vanished. "But it's simply the truth of the matter. And if we are all to survive, everyone must unite. There is a strength in unity far greater than trying to hold on to old grudges."

"And yet all we have to go on is your word." The Salarian Councilor said with disdain. "And from our perspective, all you have is theories, not proof."

At that moment, a portal opened behind the Turaga and Toa, causing the Council's guards to instinctively reach for their weapons. Out of the portal walked Toa Helryx, completely unconcerned with the weapons pointed in her direction.

"You want proof, this will give you all the evidence you need." Helryx said, pressing several buttons on her omni-tool.

A holographic projection appeared in the middle of the room, displaying the conversation that Helryx had undergone with the Reaper known as Nazara. As the video was playing, Helryx sent a copy of all the rest of the data to the omni-tools of the Councilors, including everything they had pulled from Nazara's mind.

"You'll find everything we know about the Reapers from the attached files." Helryx explained once the video had concluded. "You can understand why we're taking this so seriously."

"We'll have to authenticate it first." The Salarian Councilor admitted after a moment of reading. "This data could certainly be falsified."

"But if this is true, and they are telling the truth?" The Turian Councilor interjected, looking at the female Salarian. "I think it would be safe to assume this is the single greatest threat we have ever faced."

"Good, you're starting to see the seriousness of this." Helryx crossed her arms.

"And it's why we need all the allies we can get." Dume nodded, tapping his staff against the floor. "The Reapers want everyone divided so they can emerge and kill everyone with minimal effort. Only by presenting a unified front will the galaxy have a chance."

"... Well, you've certainly given us a lot to consider." Tevos noted as she looked up from the report on her omni-tool. "I will need to discuss this with the Matriarchs."

"Please do." Dume nodded. "And make it clear that this threat is one that requires unity to face. Trying to go it alone or attempting to hunker down and weather the storm will only lead to destruction."

...

The Collector ship cruised through space at FTL speeds, their goal in mind. Their Reaper masters had devised a new plan, one that would get the Cycle on track. All they needed to do was head for the coordinates of a world mentioned in the old Prothean records, one that was conveniently enough on the Relay network.

This decision hadn't been made lightly. Normally the plan would be to let all the species advance on their own or from finding the ruins of those who came before. But it was clear that the biosynthetics would require a different approach.

The Collectors had managed to get their hands on a few Kanoka disks, and had gone through rigorous and advanced testing that would make the STG envious. But despite their billion years of advancement, the Reapers were just as in the dark about how they worked as the organic species of this Cycle.

It was becoming increasingly clear that waiting much longer would only make the Cycle much harder to complete. And trying to invade the long way would make it even harder.

They needed to change the game, and open the Citadel relay. Nazara's destruction was admittedly a complication in this plan, which meant the Reapers had to consider less conventional solutions.

Fortunately, the answer lay in the archives of the Protheans. They had considered many species to be potential slaves and subjects for their empire, including a number of the modern races. And currently, there was one race that had yet to reach the Citadel, one race that could be taught to fear and hate the biosynthetics, as they should.

The Collector ship dropped out of FTL, near one of the dormant mass relays. A turian patrol was in the area, but the Collector ship had no difficulty avoiding them. Nor did it have difficulty activating the relay to send it where it needed to go, before rendering it dormant once more.

And so the turians remained unaware of the usage of Relay 314.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of this chapter. So quite a bit has happened in this one, that's for certain. And as we can see, it's going to have a lot of major implications down the road. Unfortunately, you'll all just have to wait and see for what happens next.


	11. New Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and now it is time to begin the next chapter. So, there's been a few developments, like the Citadel Council learning about the Reapers and the Kingdom locating Javik's stasis pod on Eden Prime.
> 
> Now, we're going to get some more developments and time skips ahead, which may involve me bending the timeline somewhat, mainly to allow some more familiar characters who aren't Krogan or asari to start appearing. But let's dive right in, shall we?

Rael'Zorah nar Rayya walked through the corridors and streets of the Citadel Wards, looking at all the shops and services within. After getting sent off on their Pilgrimage a little earlier than normal, he and Han'Gerrel had decided to go their separate ways for the time being.

Hoping his friend would be alright, Rael nevertheless focused on the technology around him, and couldn't help but marvel in awe at what he was seeing. These Kanoka Disks were selling like wildfire, and for good reason, as their capabilities were beyond any the Citadel had ever created before.

What Rael found specifically amazing were the Regeneration disks, which could repair damage nigh-instantaneously. He was certainly considering getting a supply of these for his Pilgrimage, which would be a massive boon to the Migrant Fleet.

With many of their ships old and struggling, lots of time was spent on constantly running maintenance and repairs to keep them all afloat. If they had the tools to repair them instantly and with no effort, it would certainly be a massive boon for the Flotilla.

The only trouble was who made them: the biosynthetics of the Kingdom who had become quite active in the galactic community, ever since they had first been encountered all those years ago.

The Admiralty Board and the Quarian populace in general was rather leery of these powerful artificial creations and anything they made, especially after seeing extranet footage of what they could do.

Rael could understand the fear, and even agreed with it to an extent, but he felt that the Quarians were letting their prejudices blind them to the possibilities. Especially when these biosynthetics were freely giving their miraculous technology to the public.

"Hey you, Quarian." Rael turned around to see a pair of turians and a batarian walking towards him, menace in their eyes. "What do you think you're doing here, suit rat?"

"Browsing." Rael said simply, even as he started to back away. His fight or flight instincts were kicking in, especially as none of the shop keepers or bystanders were showing any interest in helping him. "That's not a problem, is it?"

"You suit rats think you can just walk around here, after what you pulled with the Geth." The Batarian snarled, drawing a knife from his side while the turian pulled out a heavy pistol. "No one wants your kind around these parts."

The turian pointed the gun at Rael, only for it to abruptly start melting. The criminal screamed in pain and tossed the weapon away. At this point, Rael heard distinctly mechanical walking behind him and turned to see one of those biosynthetics approaching.

It was over seven feet tall in red armor, holding a bladed weapon out in one hand. A line of heat was noticeably spreading on the actual bladed part, as the Toa pointed it in the direction of the three criminals.

"I would suggest making yourself scarce." The Toa of Fire said, melting the Batarian's knife when the four eyed alien raised it threateningly. "Now."

To punctuate that point, a circle of flame suddenly appeared around the three criminals, walling them off from any escape or attempt to attack. A small break in the flame appeared behind them, and the three criminals wisely made themselves scarce. Once they were gone, the flames disappeared and the Toa turned to Rael, a noticeable expression of concern on the Toa's mask.

"Are you alright? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"I'm-I'm fine." Rael said, still shaken by not only the encounter, but by the fact that he was talking to one of these biosynthetics, these supposed boogeymen of the Galactic stage. "Who are you?"

"I am Toa Kapura." The machine replied, bending to one knee so that the Toa wasn't towering over the Quarian. "Are you sure you're alright? No suit punctures or anything? Because you seem rather distressed."

"Why would you help me?" Rael took a step back, feeling rather unnerved by the open concern from another species, let alone from a machine. "What do you want from me?"

"I am a Toa." Kapura said simply. "We protect those who cannot save themselves and battle injustice in whatever form it takes. I could not stand idly by and let any harm befall someone, no matter who they are."

Though Kapura's words were directed at the Quarian alone, Rael couldn't help but notice the eyes of several bystanders glance away in shame. He felt like joining them. One of these Toa had jumped in to save him from harm, with no ulterior motive other than it was the right thing to do. If the roles were reversed, Rael certainly didn't think he would have done the same in his position.

"I-thank you." The Quarian finally said, as the Toa stood up again.

"Always a pleasure..." The Toa blinked. "I don't believe I got your name."

"Rael'Zorah." The Quarian replied without thinking. "You can call me Rael."

"It is nice to meet you, Rael." Kapura offered a hand, which Rael hesitantly shook. "So, what brings you to the Citadel? Why aren't you on the flotilla?"

"I'm on my pilgrimage." The Quarian replied, still somewhat amazed that this conversation was happening at all. "It's the Quarian Rite of Passage into adulthood."

"Ah yes, I have heard about that." Kapura nodded, his expression thoughtful. "Quite an interesting custom. I'm sure Takua would have loved it." Rael had no idea who this Takua was, but felt compelled to continue anyway.

"I was hoping to find some of your Kanoka disks." The Quarian admitted. "A supply of Regeneration disks would be of great use to the Flotilla."

The Toa was silent, and for a moment, Rael wondered if maybe he had offended his savior, but then Kapura blinked and gestured further into the Citadel. "Follow me." The Toa said. "I believe we can arrange something."

Stunned, Rael started walking in the direction Kapura was pointing without thinking, only realizing that the Toa was walking noticeably slowly after a minute, especially considering that Rael was several meters ahead.

"Are you alrig-" Rael turned and blinked when he saw that Kapura was gone, then jumped when he found Kapura right in front of him. "How did you..."

"When I was a Matoran, my Turaga taught me the secret of traveling great distances by moving very slowly." Even Rael's mask couldn't hide the confusion on his face, which Kapura noticed and shrugged. "It is a useful skill. One that I have admittedly gotten less use out of as a Toa."

Rael couldn't even begin to cover the amount of questions he had. He had initially considered it to be some form of teleportation like he had seen on the vids, but this just raised more questions. Shaking off his musings, Rael was struck with another thought.

"Um, where are we going, exactly?" He hoped he kept the suspicion out of his voice. Happily, if it was there, Kapura didn't seem to notice.

"We're going to the Kingdom Embassy." The Toa explained. "I'm certain Turaga Dume would be happy to hear your request."

...

Back at the embassies, Dume and Onewa looked over the workload they still had and sighed. After Helryx had left, the two Turaga had been required to meet up with the ambassadors on the Citadel, while scheduling meetings between a number of other representatives from the actual Citadel species and the other Turaga.

It was a long and taxing process, especially in light of what the meetings were about, but the fact that so many had agreed provided some hope that the warnings would at least be heeded. The Council itself was still skeptical of the Reapers, that much was clear, but the evidence seemed to be convincing them.

Hopefully they would have more to offer soon. Jerbraz and Dweller had continued their search for the mysterious AI master of the Reapers, but had no luck in finding them yet. They had managed to infiltrate the Citadel Archives, finding a number of data records the Council obviously didn't want the public to know about.

That all known AI in Citadel Space had been rounded up and terminated after the Geth Uprising was certainly something to take note of. The details in that regard were admittedly vague, with the executioners seemingly acting without Council approval.

Still, the fact that the Council had only sought relatively token punishments against the 'rogue' C-SEC officers was pretty telling on its own, and Dume couldn't help but wonder if the only reason the Kingdom hadn't suffered a similar reaction was because they were afraid of what the Kingdom could do.

Dume was drawn out of that depressing train of thought when Kapura walked through the Embassy door with a guest. A Quarian, surprisingly enough. That was certainly something that hadn't been expected.

Their attempts at opening a diplomatic channel to any Quarian had ended in failure, due to their nigh-universal distrust of synthetics. Their position was understandable, but frustrating all the same, so this in itself was a big surprise.

"Toa Kapura." Dume greeted warmly, before turning to the rather nervous looking Quarian. "I see you brought a guest."

"This is Rael'Zorah." Kapura introduced the young Quarian. "He's on his Pilgrimage and expressed interest in our Regeneration Kanoka disks."

"Is that so?" Turaga Onewa asked, stepping forward and approaching the young Quarian. "I must admit that I'm surprised you'd come to us. From the reception we've gotten from other Quarians, we got the impression that your species didn't like us."

"My people... have suffered hardship from the Geth." Rael hesitantly spoke up, before gesturing to Kapura. "But he came to my aid when everyone else just looked away, and quite likely saved my life. Then he offered to help me with my Pilgrimage."

"And so we shall." Dume said. "A supply of Regeneration Kanoka? Yes, I can see how that would benefit your Flotilla. Though we must ask for something from you."

"What do you want?" Rael asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Merely an audience with your leaders." Dume shook his head. "We have tried contacting them through various means, but they seem rather determined to avoid us. While we can understand their mindset, all we want is peaceful cooperation."

"And if I refuse?" Rael asked, his tone on the edge of accusatory. "What will you do, then?"

"We would still grant you Kanoka disks, if that is your wish." Onewa said, a noticeable sad tone in his voice as he shook his head with a sigh. "I understand your hesitation and suspicion, but make no mistake: we are not the Geth. We are not the Citadel Council."

Rael was silent for a moment as he mulled over his options. On one hand, Toa Kapura had saved his life, and Rael did believe that he had no ulterior motives in doing so. But on the other hand, the fact that the biosynthetics had been trying to reach the Migrant Fleet was pretty telling.

There was something else going on with this, something the Kingdom representatives weren't saying. Regardless, however, they were still offering to give him Kanoka disks free of charge, and the Migrant Fleet most certainly could use such wondrous technology.

"Alright then." Rael said, looking Turaga Dume directly in the eye. "I will talk to the Admiralty Board, and see if I can grant you an audience with them. But I can't guarantee they'll listen."

"All we ask is that you try." Onewa said. "Now, let's see about getting you those disks."

...

The excavation of the Prothean ruins on Eden Prime was proceeding at a brisk pace, thanks to the Bohrok. They had managed to locate a number of different structures underground, particularly some buildings that looked like they once were part of a city.

Thanks to the Nuhvok and Pahrak, they could study these buildings and ruins without needing to actually expose them to the air. With any luck, the Batarians wouldn't notice their interference for quite some time, if at all.

While they were doing that, Kopaka and Onua were making their way through the bunker they had spotted until they could reach the sleeping Prothean within. Their journey had taken them past thousands of stasis pods filled with corpses, a dark reminder of what the Reapers would bring.

"It's like walking through a tomb." Onua noted solemnly.

"Because it is." Kopaka replied, looking around them. "Whether it was built for before, that's what it is now."

No more words needed to be said, and soon the two Toa Nuva found themselves in front of the only active stasis pod. That the machine was still lit up and active was a good sign, but another complication quickly became noticeable.

"So... how do we open this?" Onua asked. "Because this certainly doesn't look like any stasis pod I've ever seen before."

"You're right." Kopaka activated his mask power and looked through the inner workings. "This pod suffered some minor damage. It's not going to open on its own, and if we try to brute force it open, the shock could kill him."

"That complicates things." Onua sighed. "Will there be any issues with moving it at least?"

"Doesn't look like it." The Toa of Ice replied. "The pod has its own power source, so that won't be an issue."

"Then we might as well move it." The Toa of Earth lifted the pod effortlessly, not even needing his Pakari to aid him. "I doubt this guy will react well to waking up surrounded by his fellow Protheans as corpses."

The two Toa were quick to return to the surface, Onua's power easily speeding up their journey. When they emerged on the surface, the two Toa were surprised to see a large figure waiting for them.

"Trinuma." Kopaka greeted with a raised brow on his mask. "Helryx sent you, I presume?"

"Helryx and Turaga Takanuva." The Order of Mata Nui agent replied. "With something like this, they wanted to be sure that this goes smoothly." He spotted the stasis pod behind them. "And I'm assuming this is the Prothean in question?"

"That's the one." Onua nodded, looking to the pod himself. "We can't open the pod, so we might need some more expertise from the Citadel for this."

"Maybe not." Kopaka looked at the pod, then to Trinuma, noting the Nynrah Ghost Blasters on his shoulders. "I think we might have something that can open the pod right now." The Toa gestured to the Ghost Blasters, causing Onua to blink and turn in surprise.

"Would that work?"

"Possibly." Kopaka shrugged. "Given what Ghost Blasters do, it should bypass most of the issues the pod is facing. And physical damage is something that shouldn't be a problem, so we won't have to worry about killing the Prothean if it doesn't work."

"It's worth a shot, I suppose." Onua admitted as Trinuma stepped forward. One shot from the Ghost blaster impacted the pod, and a few seconds later, the controls on the side started to light up.

"It's working." Trinuma said, looking to the two Toa. "But it's going to take a few minutes to fully open."

"Well then, I guess there's nothing for it but to play the waiting game." Onua summoned a rock underneath him as he sat down.

It took a few minutes for the pod to finish opening up, during which the three Matoran Universe inhabitants spent most of that time waiting in idle boredom, but when it finally opened, the three of them rushed over to the side as a three fingered hand emerged from the side of the pod, followed by a four eyed head.

"We should be cautious." Onua said, as the Prothean turned to look at them. "Considering the effects of stasis and the passage of time, he might be a bit disoriented-!"

A green aura surrounded the two Toa and the Order agent as the Prothean blasted them aside with biotics, stumbling out of its pod as it did so. The Prothean looked around the landscape in surprise as the three of them recovered.

"A little late for the warning." Kopaka grumbled as the trio approached the Prothean, who seemed too stunned to notice them coming up behind him.

The Prothean was staring out into the landscape, seemingly confused and morose about something. Given all the Prothean ruins buried underground, it wasn't hard to guess what he was thinking. Gently, Onua clasped his shoulder... and saw everything.

He saw the plan to hide a million Prothean warriors in stasis, to rise up and reclaim the galaxy after the Cycle ended. He saw the plan fail miserably, as twisted Prothean Husks breached the bunkers. Onua watched as the Prothean, Javik, was helpless as a neutron purge devastated the bunker, followed by him forcibly stuck inside the stasis pod until someone could find him. And now someone had.

Javik pulled away from the Toa of Earth in shock and rage. "What are you?" The Prothean snarled. "What kind of fools would create a biomechanical being?!" For Onua's part, he was still reeling from the memories he had seen.

"I'm so sorry." His head turned to the Prothean's four eyes, an expression of pity on his mask. This only angered Javik further, his body started glowing with a green aura.

"I do not need pity from a machine!"

Whatever Javik intended to do suddenly didn't matter, as a thick coating of ice surrounded his body, leaving only his head uncovered. Onua turned to his fellow Toa, seeing frost still drifting off Kopaka's Ice Blade.

"Was that really necessary, brother?" Onua's question was punctuated by enraged shouting from Javik.

"It certainly seems like it." Kopaka said dryly. "From what I can tell, he doesn't sound particularly friendly."

"It makes sense though." Trinuma interjected. "The last thing he knew, he was at war with an army of machines. Given the anti-AI sentiment in the galaxy, it shouldn't be too surprising that the Protheans feel the same way."

"Well, it doesn't exactly help us learn from him." Onua sighed. "I think we're going to need to get the Council races to help with this. Maybe he'll have better reactions to an organic race."

...

Wrex couldn't help but grin as the Urdnot clan fortress was slowly being rebuilt. The Skakdi's elemental powers were quite an impressive sight, though according to them, they could only be used when two Skakdi were working in concert.

The Krogan clan leader couldn't even begin to wonder how that would work, but it ultimately didn't matter. Skakdi of Stone and Earth had fortified the fortress and created tons of new battlements. From here, uniting the rest of the Krogan under one banner should be doable. Wrex's dream, once almost completely abandoned, would actually be a reality.

He was interrupted from his musings when the Krogan chief scout returned, passing through a throng of Krogan and Skakdi to get to the throne of rubble. The scout bowed as he approached Wrex and Nektann, the latter standing off to the side of the throne.

"Report."

"Several Krogan clans are already willing to join us." The chief scout replied. "But the biggest opposition is still Clan Weyrloc, and with them-"

"And with them, the Blood Pack." Wrex sighed, before turning to Nektann. "I don't suppose your people are up for another fight?"

"The Skakdi are always up for a fight." Nektann grinned and several other Skakdi cheered at that proclamation.

"It'll have to wait." The chief scout interjected. "We saw signs of Thresher Maws migrating through the area. We're going to have to wait until they pass."

"That'll only delay the inevitable." Wrex chuckled. "One way or another, Weyrloc will fall."

"What's so scary about these Thresher Maws anyway?" One Skakdi asked.

"They're giant worms that spit acid and can swallow vehicles whole." Wrex explained quickly, giving the krogan run down of the feared predators.

"And?" Nektann looked confused, causing Wrex to double take.

"And what?"

"Is that it?" The Skakdi warlord actually looked disappointed, if the frown on his face was any indication. "Giant worms that spit acid? That's what you're so afraid of?"

"Has anyone ever tried riding one?" Another Skakdi spoke up before Wrex could vocalize his incredulity.

"Wha-No!" Wrex's eyes went wide at the very concept. "There's no one crazy enough to do that!"

He couldn't deny the spike of fear traveling up his spine at the number of Skakdi who grinned even wider at that proclamation.

...

"They're insane." Wreav whispered, in front of the line of slack jawed Krogan.

Wrex had to agree with his brood brother for once. Then again, it wasn't every day one saw Thresher Maws being ridden around like domesticated riding animals by cheering Skakdi. They looked like they were having the time of their lives. Slowly, Wrex brought out his omni-tool and hit the record button.

This was definitely going on the extranet.

...

Surprisingly, the Skakdi turned the tide even faster than Wrex had anticipated. Then again, even he couldn't deny the psychological sight of fighting against Thresher Maws being ridden like cavalry had a certain impact.

That the Skakdi riders were also using weapons they called Devastators increased that impact: they were 30 feet long lances tipped with an exploding spear head. Any target struck by the weapon would be turned into bloody mist.

One thing that made the weapon even more amazing was the fact that the explosive tip could regenerate after each use. Combine that with riding Thresher Maws, and most of Weyrloc's clan guards had surrendered without a fight, preferring to join the winning side.

Wrex looked on in approval, watching as another Skakdi rider rammed the spear tip into a Weyrloc clan guard, who promptly exploded in a shower of gore. As the Urdnot Chief watched the spear tip regenerate, he only had one thought on his mind.

"I gotta get me one of those."

"They're not so easy to use." Nektann warned, even as he sliced another Krogan down. "Only the strongest Skakdi are capable of wielding such a weapon effectively."

"Pity. Still, I like what your Kingdom has to offer." Wrex said, firing off his Cordak blaster and grinning when the old bunker he targeted collapsed. "You really make some good weapons."

"Don't expect them to be handed out so easily." Nektann shook his head. "Takanuva and the others in the Kingdom Council were most insistent upon that."

"Pity." Wrex stomped a Vorcha's head, crushing the vermin's skull. "I guess we'll make do with what we have."

And so the battle raged on.

...

"Are-are they riding Thresher Maws?!"

"It certainly seems like it." The Salarian Councilor replied, her eyes fixed to the screen herself.

"How do they even-" Tevos stopped herself and shook her head. "You know what, I don't want to deal with this right now." She turned the feed off and brought up the data they had been going over. "We need to get back to the task at hand."

Inside the Citadel Tower, the Councilors were continuing their discussions regarding what needed to be done regarding this new information the Kingdom had released. They had sent copies to their own governments, who had agreed that the evidence was looking irrefutable.

In fact, the reason the Kingdom had requested the Toa Mahri to scour ocean worlds was because there had been reports that the creators of the Reapers were still alive. Spectre Vasir had been updated on this fact, of course.

Now, there was just the matter of what to do about it. From the capabilities shown in the data, it was clear that the Reapers were extremely advanced, well beyond what the Citadel races were capable of currently doing.

The technical data in the Reaper databanks would certainly help change that, but they needed to act quickly to fix that. More to the point however, they clearly needed help from the Kingdom itself.

"Their technology is beyond impressive." The Salarian Councilor said, sending a few redacted STG reports to his fellow Councilors. "Multiple tests were conducted, using every conceivable method, and we still can't determine how any of it functions."

"I don't think I can even begin to describe what the stuff we know about will change the paradigm of warfare." The Turian Councilor added. "The Kanoka disks alone are already changing the civilian sector as is, and we can be certain that they have a lot more we don't know about."

"On that, we can all agree." Tevos shook her head, looking back at the data they had been given. "If these Reapers are real, then it is clear that the aid of the Kingdom will be our best chance at surviving their attack." She was interrupted by a message from the Citadel aides, explaining that the Kingdom ambassadors were requesting a meeting.

"Can it wait?" The Turian Councilor grumbled, causing the Salarian aide to shake his head.

"They were quite insistent upon it."

"Considering what they've already shown us, I'm inclined to agree." The Salarian Councilor said, before turning to the aide. "Send them in."

Turagas Dume and Onewa were escorted into the room, walking noticeably quicker than normal. It was clear from the expressions on their masks that what they had to say was something quite urgent.

"This better be important." The Turian Councilor grumbled, causing Onewa and Dume to look at each other.

"It very much is." Onewa replied. "And you're all going to want to hear this."

"I must admit, with everything you've shown us, I'm not sure what to expect now." The Salarian Councilor said.

"Well, what if we told you that we found a still living Prothean?" Utter silence followed Dume's proclamation, until Tevos broke it.

"I'm sorry, what?!"

...

At the edge of the Sol System, the moon of Pluto called Charon suddenly began to fragment and shatter. The sphere of ice that had coated the Mass Relay now broke off, letting the hidden Reaper device activate.

Shortly afterwards, a single Collector vessel emerged from the relay, before scanning the system ahead. True to the data, they could detect Prothean ruins on the fourth planet, and a garden world teeming with life ahead as the third planet orbiting the star.

The world was populated by a species of bipeds called humans, who were still in the relatively early stages of their development. They had the technology to travel into space, but they had yet to discover element zero and all it could do.

Even from this brief scan, it was clear that they were on the cusp of getting to the fourth planet and finding the Prothean ruins within. Within a few decades or so, they may very well become a full star-faring civilization and find the Citadel, becoming a full blown member of the galactic community.

It was time to speed up that process.

The Collector ship immediately sent a transmission to the Earth, hacking into one of their major communication satellites. All activity on the planet paused as a single message was sent over the airwaves.

"YOU ARE NOT ALONE."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of this chapter. Quite a bit has happened, to be sure. And quite a bit more is still to come. To be honest, as much as I try, I still feel like this story is spinning its wheels a bit, and I'm trying to make that better.
> 
> So, I might end up taking a bit of a break from this story, especially with life now really starting to kick my ass. I'll try to come back to it as soon as I can, but that might end up being a while.


	12. (Not so) Friendly Meetings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so we shall begin the next chapter. Sorry it's been some time since I updated this story, I've been trying to get the spark for it back. And it's taken a while, but I think I have it again. But enough about that, let's dive right in, shall we?

True to what they had claimed, the Kingdom had brought a Prothean in from a dimensional portal, one alive and rather annoyed at being trapped in a block of ice. When the Salarian Councilor asked why the last surviving Prothean had been frozen from the neck down, the only reply she got was;

"He was rather cranky when he woke up."

After the Prothean had been thawed out and more importantly, had been dissuaded from trying to attack the Kingdom representatives again, he identified himself as Javik, the Avatar of Vengeance for the Prothean species.

Almost immediately upon meeting the Council, he was dismissive, complaining that "This new Cycle is run by primitives. Naive primitives if you believe that any synthetic life can be trusted."

"You know we're standing right here, correct?" Balta said, glaring in annoyance at the Prothean. "And we're also the only reason you're even awake right now."

Tensions had seemed like they were about to flare again, only for Tevos, Dume and Onewa to step in to calm everyone down. Javik reluctantly continued his explanation and confirmed that what the Kingdom said was true; that the Reapers were real and they were coming. He also explained what the initial plan for him was.

"A Prothean Army, one million strong, would awake after the Reapers finished their harvest." Javik explained, a hint of determination entering his voice. "We would create a new Prothean Empire, and together we would fight back against the Reapers."

"A Prothean Empire?" The turian Councilor murmured, looking at his fellow Citadel Councilors. "It seems the Protheans were more militarized than we previously thought."

"And more imperialistic." The Salarian Councilor agreed.

"Well, this certainly does explain a few things." Tevos muttered. "Like what kind of things would have been stored on the Prothean Beacons."

"You've discovered our Beacons?" Javik asked, eyes widening in surprise. "Then why were our warnings not heeded?! You have had millennia to prepare for the coming of the Reapers and yet you've done nothing!"

The Councilors flinched at the anger in his tone, but it was Onewa who stepped in and answered for them.

"It appears that your Beacons were only really useful to your own species." The Turaga of Stone said. "No one has been able to get any messages or warnings from them."

"Then this Cycle is less advanced than we anticipated." Javik said in sorrow. "Our tracking of your evolution was in error." He then rounded on the Kingdom representatives. "As is your faith in synthetic creations. If we had discovered your Kingdom, there would be nothing left of you-" A sphere of water was suddenly around Javik's head, causing him to recoil and gasp in surprise.

"That's what the Reaper vanguard thought as well." Helryx said simply, even as Javik was drowning on dry land. The Toa of Water dispersed the sphere leaving Javik to cough up water onto the floor. "You can ask him how that worked out."

The Citadel guards looked at each other in confusion, unsure of what to do. Javik glared at Helryx in between bouts of coughing, while the Toa of Water simply crossed her arms and met his glare head on.

"This is pointless." The Turian councilor broke the silence, before turning to his compatriots. "It's become clear to me that the Reapers are what we need to be prepared for first and foremost. We need to prepare, however we can."

"I must agree." The Salarian Councilor shook her head. "If the Dalatrasses had any doubt, the testimony of the last Prothean will put them to rest. We will need to build up our fleets and prepare for war, however we can."

"There is a small problem with that." Tevos interjected, drawing all eyes to her. "What do we tell the people? If we reveal this information there will almost certainly be a massive panic over this knowledge."

"Then don't tell them." Dume replied, tapping his staff against the floor. "For the time being, we should hide this knowledge from the masses, and only reveal it once the time is right."

"It is pointless to waste time." Javik growled, once more drawing attention to him. "Tell the whole galaxy that the Reapers are coming, galvanize the people into action as we did in my Cycle. It is the only way to survive."

"Remind me, how did your Cycle turn out?" Balta snarked, but Helryx gestured for him to be quiet.

"At the moment, we definitely need to keep this secret." The Toa of Water said. "That said, I agree with Javik. We will reveal this information, but only after we finish most of our preparations."

"And you've already started, no doubt." The Salarian's eyes narrowed. "Exactly what kind of preparations have you completed so far?"

A smirk appeared on Helryx's mask.

...

The Shadowed One watched from the holoscreen as another mercenary band surrendered themselves to the Dark Hunters. It was to be expected of course; the psychological impact of watching an unstoppable warrior tear through your fortified compound could not be overstated.

Which was what Gladiator had done to this band, wrecking their compound and killing their leader. This left the survivors much more willing to listen to Lurker's previous offer, when before they had laughed in his face.

Another switch of the feeds changed to the video of a Blood Pack base. Charger tossed several Krogan aside like the Kane-Ra he had once been. Meanwhile, Firedracax held his shield up in the face of several flamethrowers of Krogan and Vorcha. His Rhotuka charged up, absorbing the flames before sending them right back at their firers. They all died as charred corpses.

The Shadowed One switched feeds again, this time to an Eclipse base on the planet Lorek. Gatherer held the Eclipse leader, Jona Sederis, by the throat, while the rest of her mercenaries suffocated from the noxious fumes around Spinner. One asari tried to rise up and throw a biotic warp at Gatherer, but a glance from Spinner caused her to undergo vertigo and collapse again.

"Good luck with her." The Shadowed One turned as Aria approached him, gesturing to the screen. "Sederis is insane, she's not going to join you so easily."

"I believe you'll find my Dark Hunters have some very... persuasive methods." The Shadowed One turned back to the screen. "One way or another, Eclipse will fall under our sway. Whether Sederis is leading it or not doesn't matter."

"And would you have used those same methods on me had I refused?" Aria crossed her arms, a hint of anger in her voice that would have made lesser beings back away in fright.

"Yes." The Shadowed One was not a lesser being. "As I told you, the Reapers are coming. If you don't fall in line, then you'd simply fall like them." He gestured to the screen at a Batarian Pirate Base being ransacked by Eliminator and Kraata-Kal. "Or should I desire, no one would ever know what happened to you." This time he pointed at a troublesome Terminus colony where Silence had abducted the Governor, leaving the populace in chaos.

"You really have no concept of tact in your Kingdom, do you?" Aria asked, then jumped as a voice spoke behind her.

"We do." Aria turned to Johmak, her biotics flaring instinctively as the Order agent regarded her calmly. "But that's for special occasions."

"In any event, I can't deny the effectiveness." Aria said after a moment. "In only a matter of weeks, your Dark Hunters have brought the Terminus even more under my control than ever before."

"And they will remain so, provided you hold up your end of the bargain." The Shadowed One turned back to her. "The Reapers are your priority. Any moves made against Citadel Space will be dealt with."

"Assuming they will do the same." Aria countered. "The Council and STG tend to react poorly when Terminus warlords start to unite."

"Oh don't worry about that." Johmak replied. "We've certainly got enough to keep them occupied."

...

The Citadel Council watched as several Dark Hunters ransacked entire criminal bases with ease, the video screens only showing glimpses of the lethality these assassins could unleash. For the thousandth time, Tevos was thankful that the first contact with the Kingdom had gone peacefully.

"It seems you've been busy." The Salarian councilor said quietly. "You've even gotten Aria T'Loak to listen to you."

"An impressive feat in and of itself." The turian Councilor noted. "And I assume that you had a similar hand in what's been going on with the Batarian Hegemony?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Helryx simply replied, causing the three Councilors to look at each other.

It was no secret that Batarian slave raids had gone down in the past few years, due to a strange series of assassinations among the Batarian leaders. No one had ever claimed credit for these attacks, nor had their been any trace of the assassins themselves.

"I'm sure." The Salarian Councilor said diplomatically.

"Whatever the case may be," Tevos interjected. "The Batarian slave trade has gone down the past few years thanks to the new leaders among the Hegemony. This can only be beneficial in the long run."

"A foolish notion." Javik interjected. "You will need all the combatants you can get when the Reapers arrive. The Prothean Empire knew this and expected it."

"And do tell, how did that work out for you?" Balta snarked, which drew a number of glares his way. "What? We're all thinking it."

"To get back to the topic at hand." Dume tapped his staff on the floor. "Javik's overall idea is desirable, though attempting to use slavery will only end badly. To that end, we still need to make sure we can present a united front when the time comes."

"We can certainly do that for our governments." The Turian Councilor said. "Same with every species that is currently part of the Citadel."

"And as we've already seen," The Salarian Councilor grumbled. "you've clearly been working on influencing the Krogan and the Terminus Systems. A fairly short-sighted decision, in the grand scheme of things-"

"Are you really one who should be talking about short-sighted decisions?" Helryx countered. "I wouldn't exactly call your decisions with the Rachni and Krogan as well thought out."

"We had no choice." Tevos started. "We had to stop-"

"I'm aware of your reasons." The First Toa said. "The point is that you go to war with the army you have, not the one you want. And for better or worse, we're going to need absolutely everyone in this fight. Whatever problems that may arise can be dealt with after the war is done."

"Wise words." The Turian Councilor nodded with approval. "Though there's still a lot of work ahead of us."

"Agreed." Tevos nodded. "What exactly are we going to do with the others? The Vorcha and the Quarians for instance?"

"The Vorcha have been... difficult." Was all Dume said in that regard. "As for the Quarians, well..."

...

Rael'Zorah certainly felt nervous as his ship returned to the flotilla. He also felt excited, having returned with a supply of Kanoka that would only benefit the Migrant Fleet for years to come.

But the nervousness that came with the package was due to what he had agreed to transport as well. Not for the first time, he glanced back at his passengers; Toa Lewa Nuva and Turaga Vakama of the Kingdom.

Also not for the first time, he couldn't help but wonder why he had agreed to this. Kapura and Dume had showed themselves to be pleasant individuals and hardly the monsters the Quarians might see them as, but they were still synthetic and the Admiralty's views on the subject were well known.

It had taken a lot of cajoling of a fellow Quarian to even transport them back to the fleet in the first place. The Kingdom representatives had offered to simply teleport them straight there, but Rael refused, partially because it was doubtful that the Conclave or Admiralty would react very well to that, and partially because he was still somewhat distrustful of their intentions.

And now they were here, at the Migrant Fleet. The Heavy fleet was already preparing to fire upon the unknown vessel, so Rael quickly transmitted the code phrase that identified him as a Quarian coming home to the fleet.

"Be prepared to receive a shipment of cargo." Rael told them, and hesitantly looked back at Lewa and Vakama. "Also, I'd like to request an audience with the Conclave. I'm bringing ambassadors from the Kingdom."

There was a brief moment of silence and static from the comms, and for a second Rael was worried that the Heavy Fleet was going to fire upon them anyway. Then the comms crackled once more.

"Rael'Zorah, be advised, there will be a security team waiting for you at the docking bay." The clipped military tone was much colder than it had been a minute ago. "Failure to comply will result in your ship being destroyed."

"Acknowledged." Rael closed the communications link and sighed.

"That could have been bad-worse." Lewa said, looking out of the viewport. "Are they usually this dark-serious?"

"Your people have been the boogeymen of mine ever since your first contact." Rael replied. "Frankly, I'm kind of amazed they didn't just blast us out of the sky when I told them you were aboard."

"Hardly the most ringing endorsement." Vakama noted, rubbing his hand over the bottom part of his mask. "I knew the Quarians had poor history with synthetics, but not like this."

"Perhaps we'll be able to win them over with our charming personalities." Lewa offered half-jokingly, which caused Rael to chuckle.

"I hope so." His mood became frosty once more. "I've already put my neck on the line for you."

...

When the ship docked, the vessel was greeted by a Quarian security team, just as promised. Several of them swept the interior of the ship, searching for any signs of stowaways and checking the shipment of disks that Rael brought for any sign of a trap.

The rest of the armed guards were scanning Rael himself, alongside the pilot, the Toa of Air and the Turaga of Fire. The guards had already confiscated Lewa's Air Katanas and Vakama's Firestaff, something the two had not protested on, knowing how vital it was to make a good first impression.

With the scans and decontamination complete, the Quarian guards gruffly escorted Rael and the Kingdom visitors through the ship, which drew a lot of narrowed eyes and suspicious glances from the other Quarians they passed.

Eventually they were led into a well appointed and lit chamber, where a number of Quarian representatives were waiting. This was the Conclave, the leaders of the Quarian people. The Admiralty Board was also present via hologram, and the mood was quite frosty upon their arrival.

"Rael'Zorah." One Admiral spoke calmly compared to her fellows. "Your gift to the flotilla is well received."

"Yes." Another Admiral was now glowering. "So could you explain to us why you brought these biosynthetics back to the fleet?!"

"It was part of the agreement I had in securing those Kanoka disks." Rael replied, managing to keep his gaze level and stance straight, as opposed to cowering like he was feeling. "The leaders of the Kingdom wished for an audience with you all."

"And you agreed?!" The Admiral growled. "You let enemies of the Quarians into our home?!"

"You forget your place, Admiral!" One civilian leader shouted back. "We are not enemies with the Kingdom, nor should we seek to be seen as such."

"They are a danger to the galaxy, and you know it!" The belligerent Admiral shouted in response. "We know the dangers of the Geth firsthand, and these biosynthetics are no different."

"They are not the Geth-" Rael tried to interject, but it seemed that a full blown argument was about to blow over.

What had been the discussion of debate in the Migrant Fleet since the inhabitants of the Kingdom emerged onto the galactic stage was now at a boiling point, and it seemed tensions were about to finally explode.

Before it could however, a tornado appeared in the middle of the chamber, silencing everyone. It rose up to the top and bottom, leaving a strong breeze around the room, but miraculously, no one was sucked in. Or rather not so miraculously, as Lewa could easily control the weather to leave everyone unharmed.

"You are aware that we are in the room?" Vakama asked as the Toa Nuva of Air dispersed the cyclone, leaving the room quiet. "We've been requesting an audience to speak with your leaders for some time now, and until Rael agreed, we've always been rebuffed. All we have wanted to do is talk, that's it."

"Talk about what?" Another civilian leader asked. "Why are you so interested in us?"

"Because the galaxy's fate may very well depend on it." Vakama replied. "So you can argue like Rahi over scraps, or you can listen to what we have to say. _Then_ you can argue like Rahi over scraps if that's what you want." The room was silent for a long moment before the Admiral that had spoken first did so again.

"You have our attention."

...

The Collector General oversaw the process as thousands upon thousands of ships were being created. And through the eyes of their puppets, the Reapers also watched, their plan starting to come into effect.

The human species had adapted fairly quickly to the news, as well as the subsequent changes. There had been some initial distrust of course, but after the leaders had met with the Prothean Husks and undergone some rudimentary indoctrination, manipulating the populace proved to be rather easy.

Humanity was a fascinating species, that couldn't be denied. Genetically, they would certainly provide effective material for a new Reaper. Unfortunately, their numbers were fairly low, so that would have to wait.

And more to the point, they would first have to be prepared for war. The biosynthetic hold on the Council would not be easily broken, so the humans would have to make do for the time being.

Already they were developing quickly, adapting to the provided technology given by the Collectors at an impressive rate. Warships were being created, clones were being born to shore up humanity's numbers, and automation was quickly gaining traction among the newly formed "Systems Alliance" government.

More importantly, the populace was being taught of the beings of the Kingdom, and how they were an anathema to life. Humanity was already being riled up and preparing to fight for however it was necessary.

Things would go differently this time around. Where the attempt to subvert the Geth had failed, and the attempt to influence the Rachni had driven them into a more violent mindset than anticipated (the Reapers suspected that their creators had a hand in that, though there wasn't any hard evidence yet), but this time would be different.

This time, their use wouldn't be as a violent and rampaging army, but as a more... subtle scalpel. Humanity would be the tool that would give them this Cycle. It was only a matter of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of this chapter. I'll admit, there's really not a whole lot that happened in it, and it's mostly set up for what's going to come later down the line.


	13. Falling Into Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, it's been some time since I wrote another chapter of this, so it's time to get back to it. Now, in this chapter, I think we're going to be drifting away from the Citadel for a bit to see what else has been going on in the galaxy and what the Kingdom's been up to beyond the usual.
> 
> For instance, we're going to see the Toa Mahri's mission going underway and find out how they're doing with that. We're also going to see a few other things happen, but you'll have to wait and see for that. With that said, let's dive right in, shall we?

It had taken some time and a lot of exploring but eventually they had found a planet that could be exactly what they were looking for. Several scanning probes were launched and one noted some unusual anomalies, prompting the shuttle in orbit to head down for a closer look.

As the ship hovered over the surface of this unnamed ocean world, a pulse of energy appeared, disabling the Mass Effect drive core and causing the shuttle to crash land into the ocean.

As soon as the ship started sinking, one of the emergency hatches was blown out, with three figures swimming up to the surface while the fourth was being carried along by the currents, a bubble of air around her head.

The Toa Mahri and Spectre Vasir surfaced, the latter coughing as soon as she gasped some more air. Quickly gaining her bearings, the seasoned Asari huntress looked around at the situation.

"Wha-what happened?" The asari asked.

"If I were to hazard a guess..." Jaller looked around, noticing the multitude of wrecked ships nearby. "We seem to have found what we're looking for."

"Getting knocked out of the sky wasn't an accident." Kongu agreed. "Someone wants to make sure we don't leave."

"Well then they've done a good job of it." Vasir cursed. "All my communication equipment was on that shuttle."

"There's something else." Hahli murmured, sending her awareness through the currents of the ocean. "From what I can sense, there's definitely something down there, several kios below us."

"Is it what we're looking for?" Jaller asked, causing Hahli to nod.

"I'm almost certain of it."

"Well we can't exactly investigate like this." Vasir was quick to point out. "We may need some reinforcements."

"And the exact same thing will happen to them if we try." Kongu countered with the obvious, gesturing towards the wreckage of vessels nearby.

"He's right." Jaller agreed. "We're here, right now. The creators of the Reapers are likely on this very planet. If we want to leave, we're going to need to convince them to let us."

Vasir sighed, knowing that she wasn't going to win this argument. Still, it would give her an opportunity she needed, so she gestured towards the wrecks again, drawing their gazes to it.

"Well, I'll probably be more useful trying to salvage comms from those." The Spectre said. "My scuba gear was ruined in the crash anyway. So, while you three go meet up with these 'Reaper creators', I'll try to get in touch with Council Space."

"If you're sure about that." Hahli said dubiously.

...

After making a brief pit stop to drop Vasir off on one of the wrecked ships, the three Toa Mahri dove underwater, searching for the mysterious Leviathans that created the Reapers. It seemed that they were very close, especially when Jaller's Mask of Sonar started picking up signatures.

"I think we've found what we're looking for." The Toa of Fire noted. "Whatever these guys are, they're big. Really big."

"Let's hope they're friendly." Kongu muttered. "It would be an unfortunate end to be eaten by wildlife."

"We'll find out soon enough." Hahli replied, triggering her Mask power.

She began glowing brightly, so much so that her fellow Toa couldn't look directly at her without shielding their eyes. And nearby sea life began swimming in the opposite direction as they approached the probe that had led them here, on this underwater plateau.

A stream of bubbles could be seen in front of them growing in frequency as something started to emerge from the depths. Hahli shut off her Faxon as the three Toa watched in awe and fear as a large aquatic creature, resembling a Reaper in shape, floated up in front of them.

"Well... I think we found a Leviathan." Kongu said.

Suddenly, all three of them were assaulted mentally, clutching their heads in pain as the landscape was changed from underwater to someplace a little more vague. It looked like a landscape of just empty water, but they were standing on it instead of sinking.

Helryx was suddenly in front of them, but instead of the Toa's normal voice, a deep and ancient male tone emerged from the First Toa's mask.

"You are neither organic, nor synthetic." The avatar of Leviathan spoke. "You are a Hybrid of both forms."

"I guess you could say that." Jaller replied. "And you're the ones who created the Reapers."

"Incorrect." The Leviathan avatar shifted to the form of Turaga Takanuva. "We did not create them."

"Um, yes you did." Kongu interjected, causing the avatar to shift to the Shadowed One and glare at him. "We've seen the Reapers. They clearly were made in your image."

"We did not make them."

"Then what did?" Hahli snapped, already getting impatient with yet another ring around by a similarly ancient being.

"We created an intelligence to solve a problem." The Leviathan was now in the form of Turaga Dume. "To find a solution to the inevitable conflict between organics and synthetics."

"I'd hardly call it inevitable." Jaller countered. "And let me guess, this 'Intelligence' apparently came to the conclusion that the only way to do this was to harvest life every several millennia and turn them into Reapers?"

"That is correct."

The three Toa looked at each other. Despite guessing correctly, the fact that it was the reason behind eons of pain, suffering and death was just staggering. The sheer stupidity and logical errors was just astonishing.

"Well, that's just..." Jaller started.

"Really, really, really..." Kongu continued.

"Stupid." Hahli finished. "Inconceivably stupid."

"It is working as intended." The Leviathan had shifted back to Helryx. "The intelligence came up with a solution. It Harvested us first, and created the Cycles to continue its work."

"We're going to stop it." Hahli growled, before pointing her Talons at the Leviathan's avatar. "And you are going to help us."

"We were the Apex race." The Leviathan now had several avatars in front of them. "We will not bow to the will of lesser races."

"Here's the thing." Jaller gestured with his sword, even as he fought against the Leviathan's illusion. "We're not giving you a choice."

A stream of fire erupted from Jaller in reality, striking the Leviathan head on and causing it to recoil away in pain. The illusion broken, Hahli quickly took control of the currents to keep Leviathan from swimming away, while Kongu surrounded the creature in a cocoon of air.

"All this pain and misery, all this slaughter and death!" Jaller shouted, angrier than he had been in a long time. "All of this is on your hands! And you are going to help us fix it, whether you do it of your own volition or we force you to."

"The Reapers fear your kind." The Leviathan said. "Now we understand why." Two more Leviathans swam up from the depths in front of them. "We... will aid you."

...

Meanwhile, several kilometers above, Spectre Tela Vasir was standing on the deck of an old wrecked ship, one that looked noticeably turian. The logs confirmed it, and it seemed that they weren't the first to crash here.

The information she had gathered here so far would be invaluable to both the Council and her second employer. Speaking of which, it had taken a bit of rewiring from an old generator, but the Spectre could now send a signal out to her other employer.

She hadn't exactly been truthful when she told the Toa Mahri that all the communication equipment was in the shuttle. She still had her comms that gave her a direct link to her second employer, a device modified to transmit even beyond the Council's normal scope.

It was expensive as hell, but the Shadow Broker had deemed her mission important enough to take it. Which was why she was using it now, free from the prying eyes of the three Toa Mahri.

"This is Agent Vasir." She reported once the encryption was complete. "We've found it. We're currently isolated on a world beyond Council control. Dispatch a team immediately. Be advised that the planet is being protected by some sort of energy pulse."

...

Many lightyears away, a being sat in a chair in front of a desk. All around him were countless screens showing his intel network, one which spread deep throughout the galaxy.

"Acknowledged agent Vasir." The Shadow Broker said. "You've done very well."

"Recommend a capture team be prepared." The Spectre added. "We're isolated from both Council Space and the Kingdom. This will be our best chance to take any biosynthetics intact for study."

"Acknowledged." The Broker replied, turning in his chair to see the body lying on the floor in front of his desk. "We'll have a team ready and waiting." He turned off the comms and smirked at the corpse of the Yahg that had been sitting in this chair only a few minutes ago. "But it won't be for the Toa Mahri."

Shapeshifting into a more comfortable biomechanical form, Triglax couldn't help but smirk. It had seemed that he had completed his mission in a rather timely position. Now, he knew exactly where the Toa Mahri had landed, and he could send a recovery team when needed. More importantly, he could report that his mission was a success.

As the Dark Hunter looked over the information network around him, there was admittedly a part of him that was tempted to keep this treasure trove for himself. So much information at his fingertips, it was all so much. If he wanted to, he could start a war in a few minutes.

Ten thousand years ago, he would have certainly kept this treasure for himself. Even after being part of the Kingdom, the habit was difficult to break. But alas, he knew the dangers of the Reapers, and he knew the importance the Shadow Broker could play in the upcoming war.

So, keying up two separate comm signals and combining them into one, Triglax sent a signal out to the Kingdom and to the Terminus Systems. In a few seconds, the image of Toa Helryx and the Shadowed One appeared right in front of him.

"Who is this?" Helryx demanded, her eyes narrowed at the shadowy image she was undoubtedly seeing.

"This is the new Shadow Broker." Triglax replied, drawing a brief flicker of surprise from both of their faces until recognition kicked in. "I regret to inform you that the previous Broker didn't see eye to eye with me."

"Well done, Triglax." The Shadowed One chuckled. "You've certainly earned your keep with this one."

"And the information network?" Helryx asked. "Is it still intact?"

"Absolutely." The shapeshifting Dark Hunter smirked. "You would not believe just what he has here."

"Send us everything." The Order leader replied. "Every last scrap of information, with the Reapers being the main priority."

"Right away." Triglax noted. "Oh, and from the latest report, it seems the Toa Mahri may have found what we were looking for."

"They located the Leviathans?" The Shadowed One asked. "That will undoubtedly prove useful."

"Provided they cooperate." Helryx shook her head. "Still, you've done well, Triglax."

"Indeed." The Shadowed One said. "The value of this cannot be overstated."

...

Krahka was getting rather antsy. She had spent the last few years keeping an eye on the Prothean Beacon that had been held by the asari. So far, they had moved it to a secure vault, but getting in would be rather trivial for a shapeshifter like her.

Still, it took time, and she had to wait until dark before she could finally slip inside the vault, especially with the guard patrols doing their rounds. But after so much time, she could at last act.

Helryx had given her the go-ahead, and as soon as there was a gap in the patrols, the shapeshifting Rahi moved in, using her powers to easily slip through and past all the defenses before entering the vault unprotected.

In a few minutes, she was standing in front of the Prothean Beacon, still covered in that statue of the goddess Athame. Activating the Beacon would still have been an issue, if not for that living Prothean agents of the Kingdom had discovered on an uncolonized Garden World.

Thanks to Helryx, she had been alerted as to just what the Protheans looked and acted like. Now knowing just what was needed, Krahka shapeshifted her form into that of a Prothean.

What information they had gleaned from Javik demonstrated just how to activate the Beacon, and in no time at all, Krahka had gotten it active, the statue covering shattering off completely when it did.

It would be downright impossible for her to hide that someone had used the Beacon from the Asari, but at that point, it was hardly a concern. Especially once the VI of a dead Prothean activated itself in front of her.

"Post-Prothean Cycle time stamp confirmed." The VI identified itself. "You are a Prothean, one of the only survivors of our people."

"In a manner of speaking." Krahka, who now looked like Javik, replied. "We need to stop the Reapers from destroying this Cycle. Do you have any information that could help with that?"

"I believe so." The VI replied. "I was created to supply the future cycle with knowledge on how to stop the Reapers."

"Good." Krahka held up an omni-tool. "Then I need you to come with me."

...

It had taken some effort, but the three STG agents had managed to breach the chamber that led to the secret vaults underneath the Kingdom. It hadn't been easy. The fact that there always seemed to be someone watching them had made their task difficult, but they had managed to exploit a gap and made it inside.

Or so they thought. None of them saw as Botar watched as the Salarians made their way down through the concealed entrance. One he had deliberately left open enough for these STG agents to spot. Once they were through, he sealed the door shut.

The trio of STG agents didn't notice, instead sneaking through the tunnels with Tactical Cloaks active. Omni-tool scans were taken regularly, and the Salarians were easily able to bypass the rather primitive traps without setting them off.

Eventually however, they reached a rather large and open chamber where three sets of staircases could be seen at the other end. However, standing in front of the staircases was a lone guard, who could easily cover all three staircases.

"Never seen his species before." One of the Salarians whispered as they retreated back into the hall out of view of the chamber. "Though I guess that's not saying much."

"Whatever he is, he does seem to be guarding those chambers." The second Salarian noted, checking his omni-tool. "And I'm getting some really odd readings coming from him."

"It's pretty clear that the Kingdom thinks that whatever is here is worth protecting." The third Salarian noted. "We're going to need to tell command about this."

"We can't, we're too far underground." The first Salarian replied. "And we still don't actually know what's down here."

"Well, we should figure that out." The second Salarian said. "I'll go down one of the staircases and see what I can find. If something happens to me, get away with the data."

With that plan of action decided, the Salarians re-engaged their Tactical Cloaks as the volunteer stealthily made his way towards the third staircase, the one closest to the unknowing guard.

What happened next stunned the other two Salarians. Their comrade got within arm's reach of the figure unseen... only for his cloaking device to fail, the operative instantly collapsed dead and his corpse crumbled to dust.

This event didn't go unnoticed by the guard.

"What the-" Voporak looked around, his eyes narrowed. "Umbra! We have invisible infiltrators down here."

The Salarians were dead before they even had a chance to be worried. A lethal beam of light ricocheted around the chamber, conspicuously avoiding going near Voporak and burning a hole in the chests of the remaining Salarians. Umbra came to a halt above their corpses.

"It appears we have some STG operatives in our midst." Voporak noted. "It's impressive that they managed to even get down here at all."

"These are the only ones." Umbra said. "No one else is in here."

"And I think I can guess how they managed to even get here." Voporak sighed. "Botar!"

The Order of Mata Nui agent teleported right in front of them, making sure to stay out of reach of Voporak's temporal field. "You called?"

"I'm assuming you had something to do with this?" The Dark Hunter said, pointing at the two Salarian corpses.

"Helryx's order." The Order agent didn't bother denying, merely giving an explanation. "With the Council infiltrators and the threat of the Reapers, she wanted to make sure that our treasures are still secure."

"They are." Umbra tapped his staff on the ground, clearly taking offense that his talents were being questioned.

"That seems rather risky." Voporak agreed. "What if they had managed to get past us?"

"They wouldn't have left this place alive." Botar replied. "I would have made sure of that."

"So, is that the only reason you did this?" Umbra asked. "Or was their something else?"

"There is." Botar nodded. "Turaga Takanuva and Helryx believe that the time may come when we need to bring the Vahi and Ignika out of storage. They are potentially our best weapons to use against the Reapers."

...

Helryx was once again back in the Kingdom, running through all the data that they currently had in the Coliseum. The intel from the Shadow Broker was definitely a massive boon, one which the First Toa was willing to leverage against the factions of the galaxy should it be needed.

But it was what had been learned on Thessia and that unnamed Ocean World that narrowed down pieces of the puzzle. Apparently, the Protheans had prepared a weapon, something called the Crucible, that could have destroyed all the Reapers, but they were never able to complete it in time.

According to the Prothean VI, the Citadel was some sort of Catalyst, needed for the amount of element zero that would spread the Crucible's effects across the Relay network. It didn't have the plans for the Crucible itself, but if they could figure out the second part, Helryx wasn't sure it was even necessary.

The second part being what the Leviathans had told them. The Reapers were under the control of an Intelligence, just as they had suspected. And given what had been told, this Intelligence was undoubtedly on the Citadel, coordinating the Reaper Cycles through the eons.

Between what Krahka had uncovered from the Beacon and the reports from the Toa Mahri regarding the Leviathans, it seemed that the Citadel was the key to all this. And the Masks of Life and Time would be the key to ending the Reaper threat.

But what was needed first was to discover just where this Intelligence was hiding. The Citadel was a large station, and there were still secrets about it the Council was unaware of.

With any luck, Jerbraz and Dweller may be able to find what countless cycles before them had not.

...

"You're just embarrassed you didn't think of this sooner."

"I am not. And I'm still not sure this is going to work." Dweller crossed his arms. "This feels like a fairly obvious solution that the Council would have thought of."

"The Council doesn't have the ability to hide themselves from the mind of others." Jerbraz countered. "They would have noticed if they were being followed or if they were bugged. But they shouldn't notice us."

"Fine." Dweller shook his head and sent his power into the minds of the organics around him.

It worked instantly. The Keepers immediately ignored the presence of the Order agent and Dark Hunter and returned to their tasks. This left Jerbraz and Dweller to continue their observations unseen.

They had been searching for this 'Intelligence' for years now, and so far they hadn't found any sign of where it might be. But once Helryx had reported what had been found by the Toa Mahri and the Krahka, Jerbraz came up with an idea that he honestly should have thought of sooner: follow the Keepers.

The diminutive little aliens had access to the unseen Citadel Core, and were able to go to places that they kept the Council races out of. Sure, there had been attempts by the Citadel Species to follow the Keepers, but the Citadel caretakers had always self-destructed before letting that happen.

Of course, as Jerbraz pointed out, the Citadel species best efforts involved cloaking agents and electronic bugs, which frankly paled in comparison to the ability to directly hide yourself from one's direct perception and mind.

So now the two biosynthetics were following the Citadel's own biosynthetics as they continued their work, the aliens blissfully unaware of the two spies in their midst. It certainly took a while, but eventually they followed a Keeper into a place that no organic had ever seen before.

"So, I guess this is the Citadel's Core." Dweller muttered, looking up at the structure in front of them.

The room was a rather cavernous structure, though only about half the size of the Coliseum. A massive and ancient core of Element Zero sat in the center of the room, glowing with a blue light around it.

"If this is the Core, then the entire Mass Relay network runs from here." Jerbraz agreed.

"Break the Core and we break the Relays?" Dweller asked. "Didn't someone point out that doing that would be akin to causing a supernova? I don't think anyone of us wants to do that."

"No we don't." Jerbraz agreed. "But there may be... alternatives. We need to tell the Kingdom Council, right now."

The moment he said that, the door slammed shut behind them. Seconds later, ancient looking drones started emerging from panels in the floor, walls and ceiling. Jerbraz and Dweller backed away as the Drones turned towards them.

"**YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE.**" A loud robotic voice emerged from everywhere, causing the duo to clutch their audio receptors in pain. "**AND NOW YOU WILL NOT LEAVE.**"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and I think this is a good place to end the chapter. As we can see, quite a bit is happening right now, and it will have quite a few ramifications going forward. But that's all for next time.


	14. Disruptions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, this story is back! No, it's not been forgotten, that much I can promise. Though I'll be honest, I'm not really sure how well it's going to come out. I'm currently stuck with a bit of Writer's Block right now, for pretty much all my writing.
> 
> I'm certainly trying to fix it, and hopefully writing this will get my creative juices flowing, but I can't be sure anymore. Still, let's dive right into the next chapter, shall we?

Jerbraz had to admit, he had certainly seen worst days. Being trapped inside the heart of the Citadel, facing the AI controlling the Reapers and all the drones it currently possessed, was certainly up there in terms of bad days, but compared to some of the work he had done for the Order over the millennia, it wasn't so bad.

Mass Accelerator fire echoed around them, some of the rounds impacting yet bouncing off his armor nonetheless. He wasn't sure how the Catalyst was doing it, but it was clear that his invisibility wasn't affecting its ability to find him.

Still, it didn't mean much as the Order agent sliced through a turret with his sword before cutting a drone in half. The mass accelerator fire aimed elsewhere was an effective reminder that it wasn't just him the Catalyst was after.

Dweller wasn't used to fighting in hand to hand, preferring to let his mental abilities work for him. But he couldn't affect the Catalyst's mind, leaving him visible and vulnerable to the attack of the drones as mass accelerator fire rained down on him.

Still, he wasn't one of the most effective Dark Hunters for nothing: he carved up one of the drones with his blades, avoiding another barrage of gunfire as he grabbed debris from one of the fallen drones and threw it at another one flying towards him, turning it to scrap.

Still, for every drone that fell, several more came and took their place. It was only a matter of time before attrition started to take its toll. And the only entrance that had led them into the room was still closed, no doubt by the AI's design.

"Kinda running out of room here!" Dweller shouted, even as he scrapped another turret. "I don't think this thing is going to let us leave!"

"Then call someone for help!" Jerbraz said, even as he cut down another drone. "NOW!"

...

Meanwhile, inside the Council Chambers, another meeting had been scheduled, this time between most of the actual leadership of the galaxy as Javik explained what the Reapers would do, giving more clarity regarding the greatest threat to the galaxy.

"They will not stop, no matter what." The Prothean was saying. "Not until every last living being in the galaxy has been wiped from existence. That is the fate that awaits all of us if the Reapers win."

"What can we do?" The Hanar representative asked, his skin glowing with his words.

"Unite our peoples." This time it was Takanuva who spoke up, drawing attention to him as his mask spread calming emotions through everyone. "Fear, division, discord, all of that is what the Reapers want. And it's why we cannot fall into their trap."

"And this is why your Kingdom has been working on uniting the Krogan?" The Turian Primarch Fedorian asked. "Why the Skakdi are aiding them in that regard?"

"Which is a mistake!" Multiple eye rolls or growls of frustration followed the exclamation of the Salarian Dalatrass. "The Krogan were uncontrollable during the Rebellions and they haven't changed. All this will accomplish is another confl-"

It took the Dalatrass several seconds to realize that no sound was coming from her mouth even as she was still speaking. When she did, her venomous glare was directed at Krakua, who met it without even flinching.

"Dalatrass, let me make this clear to you." Helryx said, stepping forward and drawing all eyes to her. "We are aiding the Krogan and getting their help during this. It's not up for debate, this is reality. And if you or the Salarian Union try to sabotage it," a wall of water was suddenly right before the Dalatrass, causing her to look up nervously. "we will take the necessary action."

At that moment, Turaga Dume and Takanuva flinched and shook their heads, with the Turaga of Light's eyes widening and the expression on the Turaga of Fire's mask growing alarmed. Something that didn't go unnoticed by the others in the room.

"Is everything alright?" Tevos asked, drawing the attention of everyone else in the room.

"No." Takanuva said with a sigh. "No it is not."

...

It was time.

The Systems Alliance had built up their fleets and armies as best as they could, outfitting their ships and soldiers with the best equipment they had. Which thanks to their benefactors, was fairly substantial and powerful.

But now it was time to reveal themselves to the galaxy at large. They would save the entirety of Citadel Space from the menace of the biosynthetics. They would be hailed as saviors, as heroes to the galaxy.

It was certainly an awe-inspiring sight. Too bad the Illusive Man could tell that it was all a bald faced lie. Jack Harper was a soldier, having trained to fight for humanity if necessary, so when the arrival of these Collectors had brought about a new age, he had definitely been suspicious.

National leaders had been far too quick to accept the words of the Collectors, and after meeting inside their ship, all the leaders had seemed... off. They weren't acting themselves, with several having a complete 180 degree change in their worldview.

With that in mind, the Illusive Man had gathered a group of like minded individuals and formed Cerberus, an organization dedicated to safeguarding mankind and more importantly, figuring out just what it was these Collectors wanted.

Because whatever their endgame was, the Illusive Man knew that these creatures didn't actually have humanity's best interests in mind. They were puppets, mere tools to point at a problem, and assuming they were telling some degree of truth, they wanted these 'biosynthetics' gone.

Which could very well mean that they were actually humanity's best chance of survival. For now though, that would have to wait. The Illusive Man turned on the main viewscreen as an incoming call made itself known on the holoscreen. Inputting a command, the Illusive Man opened a channel, letting a dark skinned young man appear on the screen.

"Lieutenant Anderson." The Cerberus leader greeted. "I trust you have news for me?"

"The operation is about to begin." The young Alliance soldier confirmed. "Word down the grapevine is that we're about to activate Relay 314. A turian response is expected, and if the reports are accurate, we're going to draw them to Shanxi and lead them into a trap."

The Illusive Man simply nodded, looking over the data and considering the man in question. David Anderson was a loyal soldier through and through, but a smart one nevertheless. When the Illusive Man had approached him discreetly with his suspicions, Anderson had initially been skeptical, but the evidence he had witnessed was irrefutable.

At one time, there would never have been a single chance where Anderson would have even dreamed of joining Cerberus. Now though, he was one of the organization's most loyal and effective informants.

"Keep me posted." The Illusive Man said. "Whatever happens at Shanxi, we need to ensure that we contact the biosynthetics first."

"Hopefully they'll listen to our warnings." Anderson sighed. "The men aren't going to be easily convinced."

"We have no other choice."

...

Back in the Catalyst's main chamber, the two stealth agents were getting worn down by the endless waves of drones and turrets the Catalyst was sending at them. Though they fought as best as they could, the fact of the matter was that neither of them were good at sustained combat, and attrition was wearing them down.

Fortunately, Jerbraz and Dweller soon found relief as the entrance to the chamber that the Catalyst had sealed came crashing down. Axonn stepped through the gate with his axe in hand, followed by Kopaka, Onua and Kapura.

"What took you guys so long?!" Jerbraz asked, even as the drones turned towards the new arrivals.

"Hey, it wasn't easy tracking this place down." Axonn replied as he effortlessly destroyed several drones before firing an energy blast from his axe, annihilating another cluster of drones. "The Citadel's huge."

"And without Kopaka's mask, we would've been searching for even longer." Onua said, even as he summoned a pillar of Earth to protect him from turret fire before slamming into the turrets. "So really, thank him."

The Toa of Ice in question said nothing as he flash froze several mid air drones. With their propulsion gone, the frozen machines hit the ground, which combined with the extreme cold ensured that they shattered on impact.

"**YOU ARE ALL ANATHEMA TO THE CYCLE!**" The Catalyst spoke up, even as it's drones were being destroyed. "**YOU MUST BE REMOVED!**"

"How about, no?" Axonn sliced through the last remaining drone, before turning to the holographic avatar of a Reaper that now appeared from the center of the room. Meanwhile, Helryx also walked in through the gaping hole where the door had been.

"So, you are the architect of the Reapers." The first Toa glared at the AI avatar, her eyes narrowed. "How charming. I don't suppose you'll save us the trouble of just shutting them off for good and letting everyone go about their lives?"

"**EVEN IF I WANTED TO, I CANNOT STOP THEIR HARVEST.**" The Catalyst said. "**THE REAPERS DO AS THEY ARE PROGRAMMED WITHOUT MY DIRECT CONTROL.**"

"I'm sure." An eyeridge raised on Helryx's mask made it clear just what she thought of that. "Would you still say the same thing if we removed you from your housing?"

"**YOUR BOASTING IS EMPTY.**" The Catalyst replied back. "**I AM THE CITADEL AND THE CITADEL IS ME. I CANNOT BE REMOVED WITHOUT DESTROYING THIS STATION**."

"And?" Axonn responded, hefting his axe over his shoulder. The Catalyst was silent for a long moment as the implication struck it.

"**YOU CANNOT DESTROY THIS STATION.**"

"And I bet you said that no one would ever set foot in this room either." Jerbraz pointed out. "And yet, here we are."

"You might want to reconsider what you believe is possible or not." Helryx added, stepping right up next to the hologram and glaring at it. "If you still find it difficult to believe, we'd be more than happy to convince you."

"**THE CYCLE WILL NOT BE BROKEN.**" The Catalyst declared. "**NOTHING YOU DO WILL CHANGE THAT.**"

"We'll see about that."

...

"So... the AI that controls the Reapers..." Tevos' eyes were wide, alongside most of the galaxy's leaders. "It's here on this station?"

"Since the Citadel was first created." Takanuva nodded. "Controlling the Reaper cycles from this point, the heart of the Mass Relay network."

The Turaga of Light was inside the Council Chambers, revealing the details of what the Kingdom's agents had discovered. With the revelation that the entity in charge of the Reapers was here on the Citadel, it was only right for the Council to know.

"We should destroy this station." The new Turian Primarch, Fedorian said. "If it truly is home to the Reaper conquest and its leader, then it should be removed from the equation."

"I believe you're acting too rashly." The Salarian Dalatrass interjected. "The Citadel is still the heart of the Relay network, and who knows what kind of damage would result to the Relays if we destroy it."

"I must agree with the Dalatrass." Helryx drew all eyes to her as she returned, with Brutaka and Trinuma standing behind her. "I understand your concern, Primarch, believe me, but acting in haste won't help us here."

Any further discussion was interrupted when the Primarch's omni-tool chimed, causing him to look at the device and curse in his native language. "And on top of everything else we have to deal with right now..."

"What is it?" Tevos asked.

"A turian patrol fleet has encountered a new species." The Primarch shook his head. "They were activating Relay 314 and in the supposed interest of protecting Citadel law, the captain in charge... opened fire on them without warning."

"They what!?" The Turian Councilor shouted, but it was drowned out by Tevos.

"Have they gone mad?!" Between the revelations regarding the Citadel and now this current headache, Tevos' usually composed attitude had all but disappeared. "In what section of Citadel law mandates opening fire on a species for a law they couldn't possibly know exists?!"

"I am well aware of this, Councilor." The Primarch shook his head, anger in his own voice. "Presuming the captain survived, he will be investigated, tried and convicted."

"What do you mean, presuming he survived?" Dume interjected, noticing the choice of words there.

"The patrol fleet was heavily damaged." The Primarch said. "The new species apparently had strong ships, and were able to fight off the fleet before jumping through the relay. Several turian ships went in pursuit, and from there we lost contact with them."

"What a mess." Tevos rubbed her temples, feeling an ongoing headache. "This new species... what do we know about them?"

"A first contact packet and several transmissions were intercepted." The Primarch replied, displaying the images of a pink asari-looking race for all to see. "From what we can tell, it's a species that calls itself-"

"Humanity." Brutaka said, glaring at the screen. "This could either be really good, or really bad."

* * *

**Well... that was certainly an ominous ending. Sorry to leave you guys on that, but this is all I could get out right now. I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out sooner rather than later. However, to tide you over, here's an omake/sneak peek from later in the story.**

...

The Reaper war had begun in earnest and despite the galaxy's preparations, it was clear that it wasn't enough. The Reapers were simply more numerous, more advanced and more durable than the vast majority of species in the galaxy.

The inside sabotage and aid of the Human Systems Alliance hadn't helped matters, with Cerberus unable to prevent their actions completely. So now, the efforts of the Kingdom to unite the galaxy were in peril, as each faction seemed more divided then ever.

"The Reapers are pushing hard on all fronts." Nektann noted, looking over the hologram of the galaxy. "If we can't find some way to turn the tide, we'll lose."

"We will still be fine thanks to Artahka's work." Roodaka pointed out.

"Which will be a cold comfort for the rest of the galaxy." Takanuva countered, then sighed. "All the same, we might want to consider evacuating as many people as we can to the Kingdom. Great Beings know we already have experience with this."

"It all comes down to the Crucible." Helryx interjected, changing the display to the basic plans of the device. "If what the Leviathans say is true, that's the key to ending this. We just need to get those plans away from the Alliance."

"If we want to keep this up though, we're going to need more warriors." The Shadowed One shook his head. "Powerful warriors."

"I believe... I can arrange that." Brutaka said.

...

A man in a leather jacket and grey hoodie stepped out of a portal, standing right in front of a group of Alliance soldiers and Husks. The Alliance soldiers wasted no time and took aim with their weapons, causing the man to smirk.

"How nice." The man's arms were suddenly enveloped with red and black tendrils before his hands were replaced with razor sharp claws. "A free buffet."

...

A man clad in rather simplistic clothes and buzzcut stood in front of a small army of Husks. He had two silver cylinders on his hips. A Reaper destroyer turned its attention to the arrival as the portal disappeared, blaring its angry horn.

The man simply smirked and pulled the two cylinders from his hips. With a _snap-hiss_, two glowing blue blades of energy were in his hands, which he held in a reverse grip. The Husks charged and the man leapt to meet them.

...

A woman in gold and orange armor strode through the empty battlefield, her visor glowing green and a large cannon replacing her right arm. She looked over the corpses with a grimace, and her eyes narrowed at the Cannibals consuming the corpses.

The loud blaring of a Reaper foghorn drew her attention to the Capital class Reaper. One of the weapons on its front was charging up. A ball of energy gathered in her own arm cannon, and she quickly took aim and fired first.

...

A red haired girl who looked no older than 15 looked around at the frozen Collectors. Her eyes had a glowing green fire emitting from them as a gathering of swords floated out of her back and hovered in a circle.

The people she rescued looked at her in awe, even as another swarm of Collectors were upon them. "Don't worry." She said, overly cheerful. "I'm combat ready."

...

A young boy dressed in pink jacket and a black t-shirt with a star on it, looking no older than sixteen looked over the asari bodies around him, holding back tears. A loud screeching howl drew his attention to the Banshees teleporting towards him. A pink hexagon shield appeared over his arm as his skin turned pink.

"No more." The young dark haired boy said, even as a pink glowing light appeared under his shirt where his belly button was. "No one else dies today!"

...

Lightning struck a pair of Reaper destroyers, disrupting their power and causing them to fall to the ground. Several other Reaper Destroyers and Capital ships landed and blared their horns, evil eyes glaring at the blond man with long hair, black armor and a red cape down his back who was standing on top of a destroyed Reaper capital ship. Lines of electricity crawled up his skin and his eyes were blue as he held a hand outstretched.

"Now then," A large ornate axe landed in his hand as he regarded the Reapers. "Anyone else?"

...

Several Reaper capital ships backed away from the blond woman floating in mid air, hovering over the remains of three capital ships and six Destroyers. She was wearing a bodysuit of red and blue, with an intricate 'S' symbol on her chest. A red cape was flapping in the breeze.

"So," The woman cracked her knuckles, glaring at the Reapers who now seemed to actually be cowering in fear. "Who's next?"

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah... that just happened. A lot of details hinted in that omake, which will be explained in due time. For now though, I'll just leave you with that. Also, bonus points to anyone who can guess who all those characters are.


	15. Changing Times

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright and now it's time to begin the next chapter of Mass Effect: Bionicle Revolution. I know it's been a while since the last chapter, but we're going to pick up shortly after we left off.
> 
> So for those who don't remember, a quick recap of what happened in the last chapter: the Catalyst was discovered on the Citadel, but it made it clear that it couldn't be removed without destroying the station. Also, humanity has finally made its appearance on the galactic stage.
> 
> Now, for this chapter, I am going to do something different for a bit: specifically go back and show what's happening with everyone else around the galaxy and what the Kingdom's up to. But enough talk, let's dive right in, shall we?

Wrex had to admit, he never expected his dream to become a reality. But now, with the help of these Skakdi, he had done it: he had reunited the Krogan people once more, and they were doing excellently.

Nektann and his warriors (especially the ones riding Thresher Maws) had all but ensured that any dissenting clans were either crushed or would fall into line, but it was the support of all the female clans that really secured his legitimacy.

Many of them had chosen to relocate to Urdnot territory, escorted and protected by Skakdi warriors to ensure their safe passage. This also had the effect of making sure that no other clans would dare attack Urdnot for fear of collateral damage.

Not that they would have been able to succeed to begin with. The Skakdi as it turned out, were just as good as building fortresses as they were at taking them apart. Wrex's clan home was all but impregnable, the bunker now surrounded by high walls and battlements bristling with weapons.

But there would be more to the recovery of the Krogan than simply building guns and buildings. So now, Wrex walked up next to Nektann in a clearing that had been set aside for another task in mind, with the roof open to the air.

The Skakdi Warlord was trying to ignore the pyjak that was scrambling around at his feet, but when the pest tried to pee on the biosynthetic, Nektann kicked the creature far across the clearing and over the wall, screeching all the way.

"Sorry about that." Wrex said halfheartedly. "They can be annoying pests."

"Still better than Stone rats." Nektann shrugged, and given what Wrex had been told about the Rahi that had inhabited the Matoran Universe and the Kingdom, he had to agree.

Though some he had to admit sounded like they'd put up a good fight. It was no wonder that the Skakdi hadn't found Thresher Maws to be intimidating, what they had to deal with on their home island Zakaz was much worse.

"Credit for your thoughts?" Wrex asked, noticing Nektann's frown.

"Well, we're not exactly prepared for this either." Nektann replied, nodding towards the irritated Krogan scientist who wasn't looking forward to his new tasks. "The Skakdi don't really do well when it comes to not breaking things."

"I get it." Wrex clapped the biosynthetic on the shoulder. "But it's like you said, times are changing." Two other Skakdi walked into the clearing, one of Water and the other of the Green. "We all need to adapt for the coming times."

The two Skakdi worked together, causing their elemental powers to activate in tandem. And for the first time in millennia, new plantlife grew on Tuchanka. The Water Skakdi summoned a small rainstorm, providing the new plants and trees with fresh water as the plantlife grew rapidly, promising a new source of renewable food for the Krogan.

Wrex had to admit; it was an incredible sight.

"I suppose you're right." Nektann nodded in approval as a forest grew over where there had once been nothing but rubble and ash. "It wouldn't be the first time we've had to adapt to changing circumstances." At that moment, Wrex's omni-tool beeped, causing the Chieftain to look at the orange device on his wrist. "What is it?"

"It's a news report." Wrex muttered in surprise. "Apparently the Council's come into contact with another species."

"I suppose that's always cause for news." The Skakdi Warlord shrugged.

"Yeah, especially when they took down a turian fleet before suing for peace." That got Nektann's attention, especially as Wrex continued to speak. "All armed with weapons far more advanced than the standard technology most of the Council uses." Wrex side-eyed the Skakdi. "Though not as advanced as you guys."

"Curious." Nektann frowned again. "This could be very interesting for the future."

...

On this unnamed ocean world, Tela Vasir waited for the arrival of the team the Shadow Broker had sent. The Toa Mahri had been underwater for some time now, which was just as well for her. When they returned, they would be walking into the hands of an awaiting capture squad.

Admittedly, the pulse might have been an issue, but Vasir had come across the source of the energy; some sort of strange spheres, which a number of the crashed ships had recovered. The logs from the crews hadn't suggested that anything good happened to them, but now the spheres had lost a lot of their glow, which could hopefully mean that the pulse might have shut off.

It also meant that the Shadow Broker had the opportunity for a two for one objective: the capture of the biosynthetics for study and access to the creators of the Reapers before anyone else would.

The Council would undoubtedly want and deserve to gain access to the latter of course, but the former... well, it was unquestionable that the Kingdom posed a major threat to Citadel Space. Any knowledge on them would be well worth the price, even if they had to be dissected while conscious.

She was considering how best to lie to the Council and the Kingdom when her thoughts were interrupted by the return of the Toa Mahri, who climbed out of the water and onto the deck of the ship. Vasir admittedly hadn't been expecting to see them again so soon, and was quick to respond in the hopes of stalling.

"That was quick." She pointed out. "I'm guessing you found what you were looking for?"

"In a manner of speaking." Jaller admitted with a scowl. "They'll aid us in the coming conflict, but they're not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts."

"They want to take their place as the 'Apex Race'." Hahli all but spat. "They see all other life forms as inferior to them."

"Such friendly fellows." Kongu rolled his eyes before regarding Vasir. "Anyway, I hope you managed to call for rescue? The Leviathans won't interfere with arriving ships anymore."

"I was able to contact the Council." Vasir lied smoothly, a natural talent given her duties. "They dispatched a rescue team. They should be here shortly." Suddenly, one of the Orbs behind her starting glowing again and an ancient and deep voice emerged from it.

"**She lies**." Heartbeat racing, Vasir was prepared for any number of denials when Jaller spoke up with her worst fear.

"Yes, we know." The Toa of Fire shook his head. "We know she was never going to contact the Council."

"What are you talking about?" Vasir instinctively denied, even as the situation was spiraling out of control. "I told you, I already contacted them and those things are hardly trustworthy-"

"Please, we've known you're an agent of the Shadow Broker since the moment you set foot in the Kingdom." Hahli crossed her arms. "You've been working with him for centuries now." Vasir snarled as biotic energy gathered around her.

"You useless hunks of metal are a threat to the Kingdom." She growled. "I will do whatever it takes to ensure the Citadel's safety, especially from you!"

She had biotically grabbed several of the Leviathan orbs and was about to unleash them and a wave of dark energy, only for Kongu to beat her to the punch and hit her hard with a massive gust of wind, throwing her into a metal panel and knocking the breath from her.

"You really embody why Toa dislike the Spectres." The Toa of Air said, shaking his head. "All that power, and you abuse it however you please. You justify your crimes in the name of the Council when all you are is just the pet thug of the galaxy's elite."

"I recommend you surrender." Jaller's sword was engulfed in flames. "Come quietly, and we won't hurt you."

Rather than take the offer, instead Vasir biotically launched herself away, narrowly avoiding the burst of fire that Jaller hurled at her. She didn't stop, continuing to use her biotic charge to get some kind of distance between her and the Toa.

Loathe as she was to admit it, the Spectre didn't have a chance in hell at beating these guys, not by herself. She would have to keep moving, use stealth training to divide the Toa and hopefully pick them off one by one. Hopefully, the Shadow Broker's capture team would get here...

Her tactical musings were abandoned and forgotten when she realized a hundred and eighty foot tall wall of water had appeared over the wreckage of this ship, utterly dwarfing the husk of the vessel, causing the asari's eyes to widen in fear.

"Ah shit."

The wave came crashing down around her, enveloping the Spectre in a tide she couldn't escape. Currents buffeted her, rather gently, all things considered as Vasir attempted to hold her breath as long as possible.

Just as she was about to pass out, the water vanished, dumping her on the deck as she coughed up seawater, followed by gasping for air as the effect caught up with her. She turned over and collapsed onto her back, with Hahli looming over her.

"There's nowhere for you to run." Hahli said softly, an undertone of menace in her voice. Then the sound of an approaching ship could be heard, causing Vasir to laugh weakly.

"Funny." The Spectre coughed as the Shadow Broker controlled shuttle broke through the cloud cover and approached the deck of the ship the four of them were standing on. "I was going to say the same thing to you."

The shuttle touched down as a squad of asari and salarian operatives emerged from the vessel. The three Toa tensed as the armed operatives approached, but they weren't displaying any hostility to the biosynthetics.

Instead they trained their weapons on Vasir.

"What are you doing?" Vasir struggled to a sitting position, pointing at the Toa Mahri. "They're the ones you're supposed to take!"

"Plans have changed." The Salarian Squad leader known as Tazzik said, before walking up to the Toa Mahri. "The Shadow Broker would like to apologize for the inconvenience and is more than willing to offer a ride back to the Kingdom."

"Well, the Broker's generosity is appreciated." Jaller said with a raised eyeridge on his Mask. "But that won't be necessary. We have our own way back to the Kingdom."

"He did say as much." The Salarian said, even as the asari Spectre accompanying them was restrained and escorted away. "Well, rest assured that Miss Vasir won't be troubling you further."

"What's going to happen to her?" Hahli asked, her eyes narrowed.

"All of her long history of misdeeds will be delivered to the Council." Tazzik responded. "She will be stripped of her Spectre status and tried by the Council for her many crimes."

"Good riddance, I suppose." Kongu said, watching as the snarling Vasir was helplessly dragged away.

"Well, thanks for the help." Jaller said politely as the squad returned to their ship.

"We are eager to please." Tazzik said, clearly not believing what he was saying, but professional enough to take it in stride. "The Shadow Broker also sends his personal regards."

And with those words, Tazzik returned to his own ship, carrying the restrained Tela Vasir with him. The shuttle doors closed and the vessel immediately took off into space, leaving the confused Toa Mahri watching as it flew off.

"So... what just happened?"

...

Meanwhile on Noveria, the Kingdom's own corporation headed by Roodaka was hard at work on many new scientific research projects, mostly using their technology and experimenting on how it could be applied to Mass Effect based technology.

The latest project was certainly an ambitious one, which was why the best engineers she could get were on the case. Several Nynrah Ghosts and other Fe-Matoran were present, alongside Toa Nuparu and now more impressively, a number of Quarian engineers, who had finally been convinced to offer their aid.

One of the engineers was a young Quarian named Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, daughter of Rael'Zorah, the first Quarian who had allowed the members of the Kingdom to talk to the Migrant Fleet.

The young Quarian was certainly eager to learn everything she could, and as Roodaka came into the lab to check their progress, she found her where she normally was nowadays; working alongside her fellow Engineer Nuparu through the project.

"You're certain this will work?" Roodaka asked, coming into the lab for a status update.

"Not at all." Nuparu looked at the Vortixx. "We're in unknown territory here."

The device in question required all the knowledge they could glean about the mass relays, plus quite a few Teleportation Kanoka. The idea was quite simple; create personal teleportation technology for the galaxy at large, reliable devices that could allow planet to planet transportation in an instant.

The idea was to create a transportation system that could be used to streamline current commercial flights. Of course, starships would always have their use as both exploration and warships, but if such a system worked, it would allow for instantaneous transmission of people and goods to countless planets all over the galaxy.

Of course, there was another reason to make this: it would allow evacuations to be much more quick and relatively more secure when the Reapers came around. Preserving lives was obviously a priority, and allowing people to teleport to untouched planets and safe zones was a priority for the Council.

Of course, that purpose was only known to a few. Needless to say, a number of companies that were responsible for shipping and charting passengers weren't particularly thrilled with the idea of being rendered obsolete, and a number of sabotage efforts had already been instigated.

Of course, trying to get past a Toa of Earth with a Mask of Stealth was much trickier than it sounded, and all of them had ended in failure. Still, there was a greater degree of secrecy involved, which was why so few people were allowed access to this project, and Tali was thrilled to be one of them.

"Well maybe we can tweak the settings a bit?" Tali suggested, unable to keep the giddiness out of her voice. "Give it greater range?"

"That's possible." Nuparu admitted. "But we'll have to be careful. If this is calibrated incorrectly, you could end up with your atoms scattered across the universe."

Roodaka rolled her eyes. Despite the expected initial frostiness, Tali had bonded fairly quickly with Nuparu. The Vortixx couldn't deny that the two engineers were an effective team, but the sunny disposition of the Quarian got annoying more than once.

"Well, I can see you two have this well in hand." The Vortixx rolled her eyes. "Don't let me keep you."

"We won't." Nuparu responded, already paying more attention to the work being done as Roodaka left.

Things would undoubtedly be so much easier with their other builder available, but as a member of the Kingdom Council, Roodaka was well aware of what Helryx had asked him to do, and she couldn't deny that he had a very important task himself.

But now she had other tasks ahead of her, like espionage against other rival corporations. It was a game of treachery and deceit, and Roodaka loved every moment of it. Her latest issue was Binary Helix, one rival company which Matriarch Benezia was a shareholder in.

They had been trying to attain samples of the Kingdom's technology without success, so lately they were trying a different approach: poaching Rahi from the area outside the Kingdom, to varying degrees of success.

Replicating Protodermis was well outside any of their capabilities, so there wasn't much to worry about there. And there were still very few Rahi that the Council races could even hope to safely capture, let alone transport off world.

Nevertheless, Roodaka was happy to deny them even those victories, and to that end, one Dark Hunter was tasked with either freeing those creatures, or destroying them to make sure they couldn't give their secrets away.

And seeing as doing similar was what Guardian had been doing for the Dark Hunters before the death of Mata Nui, it was a task he continued against Binary Helix and any other corporations that tried to take from them.

With that in mind, once Roodaka returned to her main office, she activated the scramblers for all the bugs that had been planted within before keying up a transmission to Guardian.

"What is it?" He was clearly distracted, which meant that he had found something.

"I want your report." Roodaka crossed her arms, with impatience. "I take it Binary Helix has something?"

"Sort of." Guardian paused, the audio enough to convey his thoughts. "It has nothing to do with the Kingdom, but it might be of interest nonetheless. They've found an ancient Rachni vessel drifting through space."

"So an ancient derelict?" Roodaka shook her head. "I'm not entirely sure why this is supposed to be a big deal."

"Because if what I'm hearing is correct..." The Dark Hunter murmured. "They've discovered a Rachni Queen egg onboard."

"Have they now?" Roodaka scratched her chin, as her interest was piqued. "Now that's... unexpected. I guess the Rachni aren't quite as extinct as everyone thought."

"What should we do?" Guardian asked. "I'm in position to destroy the egg, if necessary."

Roodaka paused at that, considering her options. On one hand, destroying it was probably the safer option. The Rachni were a wild card and Binary Helix was a rival, so anything that hurt them was useful in her books.

On the other hand, the Kingdom Council wouldn't approve of completing a genocide, and if they could bring back the Rachni, it could be yet another ally against the Reapers. She knew enough about Binary Helix that their desire would solely be to turn them into weapons.

She internally chuckled. She was almost becoming as soft as the Toa. How the past 10,000 years have changed things.

"Try to extract the egg first." She said. "Preferably intact, and only destroy it if there's no other options."

"Very well." Guardian acknowledged. "I will contact you when it's finished."

...

Meanwhile, on the Migrant Fleet, things were going quite well for the Quarian species. Rael's collection of Regeneration disks had been dispersed throughout the flotilla, cutting off what would normally be hours if not days of repairs needed for every ship and making sure that it would only be a few seconds.

This freed up plenty of engineers and other Quarian laborers for other tasks, with many of them taking the Kingdom's offer and working for the corporation under Roodaka. The pay was good and the work fulfilling, with many Quarians absolutely thrilled to work with a species that didn't discriminate against them.

Granted, there was still some friction, with anti-AI views still heavily prevalent among quite a few Quarians. This caused tensions when working with laborers and engineers from Kingdom, but fortunately calmer heads prevailed and a number of those individuals were starting to mellow out due to their interactions with them.

And through all this, Turaga Vakama watched, a pleased expression on his mask. He was still serving part time as the Kingdom's ambassador to the Quarians, with both the Admiralty Board and the Conclave much more receptive to his presence than they were when he and Lewa had first arrived.

There were some exceptions, especially as the Board changed around. One of the most noticeable new members was a Quarian named Xen, who openly desired to control the Geth, regarding them as nothing more than tools.

She also expressed interest in dissecting the species of the Kingdom to learn what made them tick, though she at least had enough tact not to openly state that during official meetings.

Still, she would undoubtedly be an obstacle when it came to doing what Vakama and the Kingdom were hoping on achieving: re-uniting the Geth and Quarian people on their homeworld of Rannoch.

Vakama and the Kingdom council knew that the synthetics were more than willing to co-exist with their creators, but the creators in question would take a bit more convincing. The alliance between the Geth and the Kingdom was still very much a secret, but in due time, it was hoped that it would change.

After all, they were actually willing to accept the presence of 'biosynthetics' in their fleet, let alone work alongside them. It might still take some time, but actually reuniting the Quarians and the Geth, once thought impossible by many in the galaxy, actually seemed like a potential outcome.

...

Krahka made her way through the bustling spaceport, with the smooth calmness only a shapeshifter of her age could achieve. Bypassing security was a breeze, with her easily shifting between different forms that let her bypass them normally, or in the case of really tight security, forms that were practically undetectable.

Admittedly, escaping wasn't quite as easy as getting to Thessia in the first place. The asari government had noticed that their hidden Beacon had been found and tampered with, and as such, there was much tighter security here as the government attempted to find the meddler before they could get off world.

Still, with her omni-tool hidden somewhere secure on her person, Krahka still had nothing to fear from them here. And as she made it past the final checkpoint before reaching the next chartered ship off-world, she allowed herself a moment to relax.

Then the news came on, causing many asari and her to stop and watch. A new species had been discovered, managing to defeat a Turian task force in a brief conflict over one of their worlds.

Murmurs spread throughout the crowd of asari and various other visitors, especially as the knowledge that they defeated a turian fleet over one of their worlds. A new first contact was always a momentous occasion, but the fact that it ended in violence was not something most people wanted.

Especially as the memory of the first contact with the Kingdom was fresh in the minds of many asari, and how disastrous a war with them would have been if it came to that. It was a sobering reminder that the superiority of the Citadel was not a guarantee in a conflict.

Fortunately, it seemed that these 'humans' were open to peace, especially since it seemed the turians were in the wrong here, firing upon these humans for inspecting the mass relays, breaking a law they could not have possibly known about.

As most asari in the area became curious and excited, Krahka felt more suspicion about this. She knew deception and something about this whole series of events felt wrong. From what the news was telling, it almost seemed like these humans had actually been expecting the turians, with them exploiting their doctrine flawlessly.

Shaking out of her musings, Krahka resumed her journey back to the Kingdom. She still needed to get the VI back to the Kingdom, and that was exactly what she was going to do, no matter what it took.

...

Perka, Toa of the Green, emerged onto the world of Feros, looking around at the ruins that dotted the landscape. The Prothean Javik had revealed the names and locations of quite a few worlds with Prothean ruins on them.

The world of Feros was quite a desolate one. It was one that they normally wouldn't have bothered with, except for one thing: there was evidence to suggest that some strange form of plant life existed on this world, and as soon as Perka had taken a single step on this planet, he knew that it was true.

Only a Toa of the Green would notice the massive amount of plant life nearby. And more particularly, the rather large and seemingly self aware plant that was buried under the surface, beneath the Prothean ruins.

And that's exactly what he noticed. With the exact location of this creature's main root easily located, Perka made his way to the location in question, coming across some unusual humanoid creatures sitting around.

A number of them rose up as he approached, acid drooling from their mouths as they regarded him. But none of these 'creepers' made any actual hostile movements as he approached, and only followed in his wake.

"Well, that's not creepy at all." The Toa murmured, bringing quite a congregation as he made his way deeper into the ruins.

Eventually, he came across what had to be the root structure of this creature. It was big, to be sure, but many times smaller than the Morbuzakh or Karzahni king roots that had once plagued Metru Nui.

Feelers on the ground reached towards the Toa, simultaneously releasing clouds of spores. Perka could already tell that they were meant to control any being that breathed them in. But the biomechanical nature of the Kingdom inhabitants would be immune to this, so he felt safe ignoring it and instead spread his power through the feelers at his feet.

_Who are you?_

_I am Perka, Toa of the Green. _The Toa replied through plants of his own, intertwining with the feelers on the ground. _What are you supposed to be?_

_I am the Old Growth. _The plant replied. _You may also call me the Thorian. Why do you trespass in my domain?_

_I merely seek knowledge. _Perka said. _Regarding what you know of the Protheans and the Reapers._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of this chapter. Sorry that it was kinda abrupt, but I am really running out of things to say with this. I have to be honest, the spark for this story has left me at the moment, so I'm more or less just going through the motions.
> 
> So, I'll probably end up taking a bit of a break from this fic. I do intend to see this through to the end, though I can't promise if it'll actually come to pass. Hopefully the spark will come back to me and I can keep going with this.


End file.
